Medea: Introduction
At a Glance
- Date1862; later variant of the 1838 original [1]
- MediumOil on canvas [1]
- Dimensions122.5 × 84.5 cm [1]
- Collection / recordMusée du Louvre; RF 1402 [1]
This work across Eugène Delacroix’s career
Contents
- A familiar composition painted again
- The moment before the blow
- A solid triangle full of movement
- Light on the body, shadow over the eyes
- The opening beyond the cave
- From the Salon to a later return
- Annotated details
A familiar composition painted again
Eugène Delacroix’s Medea in the Louvre dates from 1862. It returns to a composition he had first brought before the public in 1838, in the much larger painting now in Lille. The distinction matters: the Louvre canvas is a late reconsideration of an established image, with its own proportions and adjustments. The museum describes it as a reduction with variants. Painted in oil on canvas, it measures 122.5 × 84.5 cm, carries Delacroix’s signature and the date at the lower left, and entered the Louvre through the Thomy Thiéry bequest in 1902.[1]
Both paintings are called Médée furieuse. The earlier work, in the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille, measures 260 × 165 cm: more than twice the height of the Louvre version. It is the Lille painting that made its impact at the Salon of 1838.[8] Across that interval of twenty-four years, Delacroix retained the composition’s terrible central relationship. A mother gathers two living children against her body while holding the weapon with which she threatens them. Her enclosing arm and her armed hand belong to the same figure. The closeness that might ordinarily suggest safety becomes the means by which escape is prevented.
The Louvre version makes this contradiction legible before the story is fully recalled. A pale, brightly lit group emerges from a rocky darkness. Medea’s head turns sharply to the left, away from the children; the knife descends beside her thigh on the right. Between those opposed directions, the children’s small bodies twist across her lap. The group holds together, but almost everything within it strains against that unity.
The moment before the blow
In the myth summarised by the Lille museum, Jason has abandoned Medea for another woman. Medea poisons her rival and prepares to kill her own children.[8] Delacroix isolates that last, impending act. The longer title used in the 2018 exhibition catalogue, Medea About to Kill Her Children, makes the timing explicit.[9] The painting shows a knife being held, not a blade entering a body. Neither child is dead. Knowledge of the story supplies an outcome which the painted scene has not yet reached.
This delay gives the image its particular force. There is no need to reconstruct a sequence of violent incidents within the cave. The weapon, the children and the restraining body are all present at once. Medea’s hand grips the dagger firmly, but its point remains directed downwards. The children’s movements occupy the interval before that hand might change position. The composition allows us to see the threat continuously without releasing it into a completed action.
The curly-haired child at the front is held upright against Medea’s body, with legs hanging down towards the dark drapery. The mouth is open and a small hand rises close to the face. The other child lies more horizontally across the lap, head partly obscured beneath Medea’s arm, with bent legs extending towards the right. These different orientations prevent the children from becoming a single decorative bundle. One body drops, another stretches sideways; their limbs interrupt the larger contours that contain them.
Their movements can be read as distress and resistance, but the painting does not give access to an exact thought in either child. What it does show is physical dependence. The children cannot establish a stable position apart from Medea. Their bodies rest against her thighs and arm, yet those supports also hold them within reach of the knife. The familiar arrangement of an adult carrying children becomes unbearable because carrying and confinement cannot be separated.
A solid triangle full of movement
Medea’s crowned head rises above a broad base of bent legs, cloth and rock. Her body gives the group a roughly triangular structure. That shape initially lends weight and coherence to a scene whose subject is unstable. The upper torso is strongly illuminated; below it, the spreading folds gather the three figures into a substantial mass. Bare feet emerge near the left ledge and the lower centre, tying the figure to the uneven ground rather than allowing her to float against the darkness.
Within this broad structure, Delacroix sets curves against curves. The encircling arm crosses the children; their bent limbs cut back across it. Medea’s raised thighs provide a ledge for their bodies while also narrowing the space in which they can move. The vertical dagger interrupts these rounded forms. Its straight, pointed length is especially distinct beside the exposed flesh and broken folds of cloth. It needs little space to alter the meaning of the whole group.
The 2018 Delacroix catalogue relates the earlier Lille composition’s sculptural solidity and shallow setting to the artist’s decorative work in the Salon du Roi at the Palais Bourbon. It also draws comparisons with the force of Michelangelo’s sculpture, the pyramidal arrangement of Andrea del Sarto’s Charity, and the frightened, wriggling child in Rembrandt’s The Rape of Ganymede.[9] These are scholarly proposals about the composition’s artistic relationships, rather than a record of Delacroix explaining each borrowing.
The comparison with Charity is particularly suggestive for understanding the arrangement. A woman gathering children can embody nourishment and care. Here, the same broad compositional relationship accommodates an imminent killing. The reference does not require every gesture to match: its value lies in the disturbing familiarity of the group. Medea’s bare breasts and the children pressed against her preserve the visible circumstances of motherhood while the weapon makes those circumstances dangerous.
The sculpture comparison also clarifies why the cave feels so close. There is little space behind the figures into which the action can disperse. Their bodies carry the narrative, almost as though the group had been placed before a dark recess. Yet the children’s irregular movements resist a purely monumental reading. The composition combines a lasting, easily grasped outline with gestures that seem unable to settle. Its stillness belongs to the arrangement; its agitation belongs to the people caught within it.
Explore Delacroix on video
An artist overview and a closer look at Liberty Leading the People.
Eugene Delacroix Paintings
An overview of Delacroix’s paintings from TheHistoryOfArt.
Watch on YouTubeLight on the body, shadow over the eyes
Medea’s profile is one of the painting’s clearest boundaries. The nose, parted lips and chin stand out beneath a broad band of shadow across the upper face. Above that shadow is the decorated diadem; beside the lit cheek, an earring catches the eye. Dark hair streams back towards the right, linking the head to the cave’s surrounding darkness. These details give her a distinct presence without making her expression fully available.
The obscured eyes direct attention towards the body. Her head turns towards the opening on the left, but the shadow prevents us from following a precise gaze. We can register the turn without knowing exactly what she sees. Below, the exposed shoulder, chest and arms are much more readable. The painting shows her physical hold on the children while withholding the most familiar means of interpreting a face.
That difference discourages a simple explanation of the scene through a single expression. Anger is part of the subject named by Médée furieuse, but a diagnosis of Medea’s state of mind would go beyond what the image establishes. The visible relationships are more exact: her face turns away, her arm holds the children, and her other hand retains the knife. The separation between looking and holding makes the imminent violence harder to locate in one dramatic gesture.
Light also gives the weapon a presence out of proportion to its size. Beside the clenched hand and the bare thigh, a narrow bright edge makes the downward blade readable against the darker folds. Its position brings metal and vulnerable flesh into close proximity. No painted wound is needed to connect them. The straight line offers a possible next movement within a scene otherwise dominated by bent limbs and enclosing curves.
The red cloth spreads beneath and around the bodies, deepening into brown and near-black folds. Paler fabric appears among the children and beside the dagger, but the children are substantially nude; they are not a pair of figures uniformly dressed in white. Their vulnerability comes through exposed limbs, small scale and precarious positions. The red can acquire a threatening resonance in this setting, yet it remains cloth. Reading it as an atmosphere of anticipated violence is different from mistaking it for evidence that the killing has already happened.
The opening beyond the cave
A patch of blue-green at the upper left interrupts the earth colours and dark rock. The cave opening establishes an outside world, but only a fragment of it is visible. Medea’s turned head directs attention towards that edge, away from the dense knot of bodies. For a moment the eye can travel outwards, then return to the children and the knife.
The opening offers a direction without supplying a visible destination. There is no figure waiting there, no clear route along which the children are shown escaping. We cannot know whether Medea is contemplating the view. The opening distinguishes the outside from the enclosed foreground and sets the head’s leftward turn against the weapon on the right.
Rock and small patches of vegetation continue down towards the ground beneath the figures. These details keep the cave from becoming an entirely abstract backdrop, although they never compete with the bodies for attention. The irregular ledges also give the drapery a place to accumulate. Cloth, limbs and stone overlap so closely that the group seems lodged within the setting. The opening remains visible above, while the immediate space around the children feels crowded and difficult to leave.
From the Salon to a later return
The composition had a substantial history before Delacroix painted the Louvre version. Lille reports that its collection contains thirty-one drawings and one sketch associated with the subject.[8] Those holdings indicate the extent of the preparatory work; they should not be confused with thirty-one separate finished versions. The large canvas appeared at the Salon of 1838 as number 456 and was sold to the French state on 31 July that year. It remained on view at the Musée du Luxembourg for a year before going to Lille.[9]
Its destination mattered to Delacroix. As the 2018 catalogue explains, he wanted the painting to remain in Paris and objected to its removal; temporary display at the Luxembourg was a compromise. The same catalogue describes a strongly favourable critical reception in 1838, including praise from Gustave Planche and Théophile Gautier linking the work’s breadth and solidity to the Salon du Roi decorations.[9] That success belongs to the original painting’s public history. The Louvre canvas was made much later, when the composition was already recognised and sought after.
The catalogue connects renewed demand to Émile Lassalle’s large lithograph, exhibited at the Salon of 1857. It records a painted repetition made in 1859 for Jean-Hector Bouruet-Aubertot, now destroyed, and two further versions in 1862, commissioned for Émile Pereire and for the Société des Amis des Arts in Arras.[9] The Louvre’s own record securely identifies its canvas as an 1862 reduction with variants.[1] Together, these records show the subject returning through both print and painting, long after its first exhibition.
Reduction changes the encounter. The Lille original’s height of 260 cm gives the group a public, monumental scale; the Louvre canvas’s 122.5 cm height brings the same basic confrontation into a considerably smaller field. The latter is still a substantial painting. Its effect depends on the continued weight of the adult body and the legibility of the small gestures within it, rather than on making the subject slight or anecdotal. The Louvre’s description of variants also recognises that returning to a successful arrangement allowed changes within a familiar structure.
In this later version, the composition’s durability is inseparable from its unresolved action. Medea’s body remains the centre on which the children depend and the source of the danger they face. The knife hangs down; the children twist; the shadowed head turns towards the opening. Those directions never become one completed movement. Delacroix holds them together in a single, compact image, leaving the anticipated blow outside the painted moment.

Medea About to Kill Her Children, 1838, oil on canvas. Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille; P 542. This framed photographic view shows the larger original, distinct from the Louvre’s 1862 variant. Sailko, via Wikimedia Commons. Image source. CC BY 3.0. Whole supplied primary image retained, including documentary/support edges; no appearance editing.
Annotated Details from Medea
The numbered points identify visible features discussed in this article. Return from each detail to the whole composition. Each caption identifies the work shown.
Medea
Medea, 1862, oil on canvas. Musée du Louvre; RF 1402. This later variant differs from the large 1838 original in Lille. Shonagon, faithful reproduction via Wikimedia Commons. Image source. Public domain. Numbers added to a separate resized overview; detail images are crops of the source reproduction. No colour or perspective changes.
Medea - Lille 1838 Original
Medea About to Kill Her Children, 1838, oil on canvas. Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille; P 542. This framed photographic view shows the larger original, distinct from the Louvre’s 1862 variant. Sailko, via Wikimedia Commons. Image source. CC BY 3.0. Numbered overview and detail crops made from the complete source reproduction. CC BY 3.0. Original colour and geometry retained.
Details from MEDEA
Each caption distinguishes the main work from the separate comparison. Compare the numbered details with their positions in the complete reproductions.
Medea
A profile with the eyes in shadow
The decorated diadem rises above a band of shadow. The clear profile turns towards the opening while the children remain enclosed below.
The enclosing arm and twisting children
Medea’s arm supports and confines two differently directed bodies. Their small limbs unsettle the broad, solid group.
Medea - Lille 1838 Original
Medea turns towards the left
The head turns sharply away from the children. Light across the shoulder and chest stands out against the dark recess behind the figure.
The child held across the body
A child’s pale body crosses in front of Medea. Curving limbs and the enclosing arm create a tightly compressed group at the centre of the painting.
Artworks directory
Selected documented works by or associated with Eugène Delacroix, with dates, media and collection records distinguished. This is a growing research directory, not a complete catalogue. An unspecified medium appears under All media.
| Name | Date | Medium |
|---|---|---|
| Male Academy Figure: Half‑Length, Side View | c. 1818–20 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Female Academy Figure: Seated, Front View (Mademoiselle Rose) | c. 1820–23 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Two Bearded Heads, after Veronese (detail from “The Marriage at Cana”) | 1820 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Self‑Portrait as Ravenswood | c.1821 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Nereid, after Rubens, detail from “The Landing of Maria de Medici at Marseilles” | c. 1822 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Studies of a Damned Man, for “The Barque of Dante” | 1822 | Drawing Catalogue. |
| Head of an Old Greek Woman | 1824 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Tasso in the Hospital of St. Anna, Ferrara | 1824 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Turk Mounting His Horse | 1824 | Aquatint Catalogue. |
| Portrait of Aspasie | About 1824 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Sketch after Goya’s “Caprichos” | c. 1822–24 | Drawing Catalogue. |
| Study of Babouches | c. 1823–24 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Thales Fielding (1793–1837) | c. 1824–25 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Studies of Bindings, an Oriental Jacket, and Figures after Goya | c. 1822–26 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Study of an Oriental Vest | c. 1822–26 | Drawing Catalogue. |
| Study of Greek Costumes | c. 1823–26 | Drawing Catalogue. |
| Christ in the Garden of Olives (The Agony in the Garden) | 1824–26 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Reclining Female Nude: Back View | c. 1824–26 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Macbeth Consulting the Witches | 1825 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Studies of Seven Greek Coins | 1825 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Studies of Twelve Greek and Roman Coins | 1825 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Mortally Wounded Brigand Quenches His Thirst | c.1825 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Charles VI and Odette de Champdivers | About 1825 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Duke of Orléans Showing His Lover | About 1825–26 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Count Demetrius de Palatiano (1794–1849) in Suliot Costume | c. 1825–26 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi | 1826 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Combat of the Giaour and Hassan | 1826 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Justinian Drafting His Laws, sketch | 1826 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Baron Schwiter (Louis Auguste Schwiter, 1805–1889) | 1826 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Louis Auguste Schwiter (1805–1889) | 1826–30 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Death of Sardanapalus, sketch | 1826–27 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| A Lady and Her Valet | c. 1826–29 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Woman with a Parrot | 1827 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Seated Turk (possibly Paul Barroilhet, 1805–1871) | c. 1827–30 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| A Greek and a Turk in an Interior | late 1820s | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| Faust (illustrated book) | 1828 | Illustrated book Catalogue. |
| Mephistopheles Flying over the City (Study for “Faust,” plate 1) | c. 1825–27 | Drawing Catalogue. |
| Faust, plate 1: Mephistopheles Aloft | 1826/27 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Faust, plate 2: Faust in His Study | 1826/27 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Faust, plate 3: Faust and Wagner | 1826/27 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Faust, plate 4: Faust, Wagner, and the Poodle | 1826/27 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Faust, plate 5: Mephistopheles Appearing to Faust | 1826/27 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Faust, plate 6: Mephistopheles Receiving the Student | 1826/27 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Faust and Mephistopheles in the Tavern (Study for “Faust,” plate 7) | 1825/26 | Drawing Catalogue. |
| Faust, plate 7: Mephistopheles in Auerbach’s Tavern | 1826 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Faust, Marguerite, and Mephistopheles in the Street (Study for “Faust,” plate 8) | c. 1825–27 | Drawing Catalogue. |
| Faust, plate 8: Faust Trying to Seduce Marguerite | 1826/27 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Faust, plate 9: Mephistopheles Introduces Himself at Martha’s House | 1827 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Faust, plate 10: Marguerite at the Spinning Wheel | 1826/27 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Faust, plate 11: Duel between Faust and Valentin | 1826/27 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Faust, plate 12: Mephistopheles and Faust Fleeing after the Duel | 1826/27 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Faust, plate 13: Marguerite in Church | 1826/27 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Faust, plate 14: Faust and Mephistopheles in the Harz Mountains | 1826/27 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Faust, plate 15: Marguerite’s Ghost Appearing to Faust | 1826/27 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Faust, plate 16: Faust and Mephistopheles Galloping on Walpurgis Night | 1826 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Faust, plate 17: Faust with Marguerite in Prison | 1826/27 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Wild Horse Felled by a Tiger | 1828 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Wild Horse Felled by a Tiger | 1828 | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| Wild Horse | 1828 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Studies of a Lion (Tours sketchbook) | 12 February 1824 or 1829 | Drawing Catalogue. |
| Sketches of Tigers and Men in Sixteenth‑Century Costume | c. 1828–29 | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| Nineteen Studies of Heads and Skulls of Lions | c. 1828–30 | Drawing Catalogue. |
| Tiger Lying at the Entrance of Its Lair | c. 1828–30 | Etching Catalogue. |
| The Murder of the Bishop of Liège | 1829 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Royal Tiger | 1829 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Lion of the Atlas Mountains | 1829–30 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| Young Tiger Playing with Its Mother (Study of Two Tigers) | 1830 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Battle of Poitiers | 1830 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Battle of Nancy and the Death of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, January 5, 1477 | 1831 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Boissy d’Anglas at the Convention, sketch | 1831 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Interior of a Dominican Convent in Madrid (L’Amende Honorable) | 1831 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Jewish Woman of Tangier | 1832 | Drawing Catalogue. |
| Portrait of Schmareck, Tanner at Tangier | 1832 | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| Standing Moroccan | 1832 | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| A Man of Tangier | 1832 | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| Saada, the Wife of Abraham Ben‑Chimol, and Préciada, One of Their Daughters | 1832 | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| Street in Meknes | 1832 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Moroccan Military Exercises | 1832 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Arab Cavalry Practicing a Charge (Fantaisie Arabe) | 1833 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| A Blacksmith | 1833 | Aquatint Catalogue. |
| Collision of Arab Horsemen | 1833/34 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Figure Study for “The Women of Algiers” | 1833/34 | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| Women of Algiers in Their Apartment | 1834 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Natchez | 1823–24 and 1835 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Christ on the Cross | 1835 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard | 1835 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Combat of the Giaour and Hassan | 1835 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Léon Riesener (1808–1878) | 1835 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Madame Henri François Riesener (Félicité Longrois, 1786–1847) | 1835 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Saint Sebastian Tended by the Holy Women | 1836 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Medea About to Kill Her Children, sketch | c. 1836 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Moroccan Chieftain Receiving Tribute | 1837 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Self‑Portrait in a Green Vest | c. 1837 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Medea About to Kill Her Children (Medée furieuse) | 1838 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Cleopatra and the Peasant | 1838 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Hamlet and Horatio in the Graveyard | 1839 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Startled Arabian Horse in a Landscape | c. 1835–40 | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| The Shipwreck of Don Juan | 1840 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Christ on the Lake of Genesareth (Portland version) | c. 1853 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Pietà, first sketch | by 1843 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Pietà, second sketch | by 1843 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Christ on the Cross, sketch | 1845 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Christ on the Cross | 1846 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Death of Sardanapalus (Philadelphia replica) | 1844 / 1845–46 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Abduction of Rebecca | 1846 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Lamentation (Christ at the Tomb) | 1847–48 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Arab Players | 1848 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Arch of Morning Glories, study for “Basket of Flowers” | 1848/49 | Pastel Catalogue. |
| Basket of Flowers | 1848–49 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Basket of Flowers and Fruit | 1849 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Basket of Flowers | c. 1848–50 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Christ at the Column | probably 1849 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Landscape at Champrosay | possibly 1849 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Michelangelo in His Studio | About1849–50 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| View in the Forest of Sénart | c. 1849–50 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Forest View with an Oak Tree | c. 1849–50 | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| The Triumph of Genius over Envy | c. 1849–51 | Drawing Catalogue. |
| Jacob Struggling with the Angel | 1850 | Drawing Catalogue. |
| Jacob Wrestling with the Angel | 1850 | Drawing Catalogue. |
| Jacob Wrestling with the Angel | 1850 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Sunset | c. 1850 | Pastel Catalogue. |
| Apollo Slays the Python, sketch | c. 1850 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Apollo Victorious over the Serpent Python, sketch | c. 1850 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Pietà | About1850 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Agony in the Garden | 1851 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Study of the Sea | 1851(?) | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| Marphise | 1852 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Sea at Dieppe | 1852 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Christ Asleep during the Tempest | c. 1853 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Saint Stephen Borne Away by His Disciples | 1853 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Christ on the Sea of Galilee | 1854 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Sea at Dieppe | probably 1854 | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| A Lion and a Tiger, Fighting | c. 1854 | Drawing Catalogue. |
| Lion Hunt, sketch | 1854 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Lion Hunt (fragment) | 1855 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Lion Hunt | 1855–56 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Hilly Landscape | c. 1855 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Sultan of Morocco and His Entourage | 1856 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Bride of Abydos (Selim and Zuleika) | 1857 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Lamentation over the Body of Christ | 1857 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Abduction of Rebecca | 1858 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Ovid among the Scythians | 1859 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Amadis de Gaule Delivers a Damsel from Galpan’s Castle | 1859–60 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable | 1860 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Shipwreck on the Coast | 1862 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Battle of Taillebourg won by Saint Louis (Château de Versailles) | 1837 | Oil on canvas Catalogue. |
| Christ on the Lake of Gennezaret (Christ Asleep during the Tempest) (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) | About 1853 | Oil on canvas Catalogue. |
| The Coast of Spain at Salabrena (Christie’s 1998 sale 6059, lot 123) | 19 January 1832 | Pen and ink Catalogue. |
| Crouching Tiger (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) | 1839 | Pen and ink Catalogue. |
| The Education of Achilles (J. Paul Getty Museum) | 1862 | Pastel Catalogue. |
| Fallen Warriors and a Runaway Horse (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) | 1862 | Pen and ink Catalogue. |
| George Sand's Garden at Nohant (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) | About 1842–43 | Oil on canvas Catalogue. |
| The Giaour on Horseback (The Metropolitan Museum of Art) | 1824–26 | Pen and ink Catalogue. |
| Lion Hunt (Art Institute of Chicago) | 1860–61; signed 1861 | Oil on canvas Catalogue. |
| Figure Studies related to Liberty Leading the People | 1830 | Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash Catalogue. |
| Chios: Head, Shoulder and Foot Studies | 1823 | Graphite Catalogue. |
| Figure Studies for the Salon du Roi, Palais Bourbon | 1833–35 | Pen and iron gall ink Catalogue. |
| Four Studies of Horses | 1824–25 | Pen, ink, black wash and graphite (recto); graphite (verso) Catalogue. |
| Studies of a Horse and Rider for Heliodorus Driven from the Temple | 1849–50 | Pen and iron gall ink, graphite Catalogue. |
| Liberty Leading the People | 1830 | Oil on canvas Catalogue. |
| Massacre at Chios | 1824 | Oil on canvas Catalogue. |
| Death of Sardanapalus (Louvre original) | 1827 | Oil on canvas Catalogue. |
| Barque of Dante | 1822 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Orphan Girl at the Cemetery | 1824 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Jacob Wrestling with the Angel (Saint-Sulpice wall painting) | Completed 1861 | Wall painting Catalogue. |
| Heliodorus Driven from the Temple (Saint-Sulpice wall painting) | Completed 1861 | Wall painting Catalogue. |
| African Pirates Abducting a Young Woman | 1852 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| An Arab Horseman at the Gallop | 1849 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Arabs Skirmishing in the Mountains | 1863 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Moroccan Horseman Crossing a Ford | About 1850 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| A Moroccan (Arab) Saddling a Horse | 1855 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Execution of the Doge Marino Faliero | 1825–26 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Christopher Columbus and his Son at La Rábida | 1838 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Horse Frightened by Lightning | 1825–29 | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| Horses Leaving the Sea | 1860 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Tiger with a Tortoise | 1862 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Tiger | About1830 | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| Tiger and Snake | 1862 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Tiger Hunt | 1854 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Lion Hunt in Morocco | 1854 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Lion Rending Apart a Corpse | About1848;historical catalogue placement | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| Frederic Chopin | 1838 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Portrait of George Sand | 1838 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Portrait of Frédéric Chopin and George Sand | 1838 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Mademoiselle Rose | About 1820 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Head of a Woman in a Red Turban | 1831; archive date | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Two Views of a Standing Indian from Calcutta | About 1823–24 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Last Words of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius | 1844 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Entry of the Crusaders in Constantinople | 1840 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Medea | 1862 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Death of Laras | 1858 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Bride of Abydos | About 1852–53; dating disputed | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Bride of Lammermoor | About1826 | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| Cromwell at Windsor Castle | 1828 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Milton Dictated to his Daughters the Paradise Lost | 1827–28 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Tasso in the Madhouse | 1839 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Christ on the Cross | 1853 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Disciples at Emmaus | 1853 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Entombment of Christ | Nineteenth century; precise date unestablished | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Fanatics of Tangier | 1837–38 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Jewish Bride | Undated; Moroccan subject associated with the1832journey | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| Jewish Wedding in Morocco | 1839; Salon1841 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Moroccan Fantasia | 1847 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| The Sultan of Morocco | 1845 | Oil painting Catalogue. |
| Bouquet of Flowers 1843 | 1843 | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| Bouquet of Flowers, 1849 | 1849 | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| Cliffs Near Dieppe | 1852–55 | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| The Edge of a Wood at Nohant | c.1842/1843 | Watercolour Catalogue. |
| Still Life with Lobsters | 1826–27 | Oil on canvas Catalogue. |
| A Corner of the Studio (attribution disputed) | 1825–1850; attribution disputed | Oil on canvas Catalogue. |
| Study of the Sky at Sunset | c.1849 | Pastel Catalogue. |
| Self-Portrait, about 1840 | c.1840 | Oil on canvas Catalogue. |
| Women of Algiers in Their Apartment (1849) | 1849 | Oil on canvas Catalogue. |
| Susanna and the Elders | 1841 | Oil on canvas Catalogue. |
| The Education of Achilles (Drawing) | c.1844 | Graphite Catalogue. |
| Attila the Hun | Completed 1847 | Mural detail Catalogue. |
| The Italian Theatre | 1821 | Lithograph Catalogue. |
| A Turkish Man on a Grey Horse | Undated | Not specified Catalogue. |
| Study for The Massacre at Chios | About 1823–24 | Graphite, watercolour and gouache on paper Catalogue. |
| The Prisoner of Chillon | 1834; Salon of 1835 | Oil on canvas Catalogue. |
| Two Knights Fighting in a Landscape | Second quarter of the nineteenth century; precise date uncertain | Oil on canvas; possible later completion Catalogue. |
Discussion
Look again at the images and ideas explored in Medea. These editorial prompts invite your observations.
Reader Insights
Follow the arm holding the children, then find the hand gripping the dagger. How do support and confinement occupy the same body?
Compare the children’s twisting limbs with the broad triangular group. Where does its stability break down?
Join the Conversation
Share a detail, comparison or question about Medea below.
References
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- Swiss Federal Office of Culture, Marokkanische Soldaten bei einer Gefechtsübung,1847,SOR1936.3;oil66×82cm,Römerholz,currentobjectrecord. German. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
- Musée des Augustins, Toulouse, Moulay Abd-er-Rahman,sultan du Maroc,1845,2004 1 99;oil384×344cm,currentobjectrecord. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
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- Musée du Louvre, Bouquet de fleurs, 1849, RF 31719, Recto; watercolour, gouache and pastel over black pencil on two joined sheets of grey paper, 65 × 65.4 cm. Current collection record. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
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- Musée du Louvre, Nature morte au homard, RF1661,1826–27, oil on canvas80.5×106.5cm. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
- Musée du Louvre, Coin d’atelier. Le poêle, RF2058,1825–1850,oil51×43.4cm; doubtful signature and disputed attribution. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
- Musée du Louvre, Etude de ciel au soleil couchant, RF3706 Recto,c1849,pastel on grey paper19.2×23.8cm. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
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- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Education of Achilles, c.1844, 2014.732.3, graphite, 23.6 × 29.7 cm. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
- Assemblée nationale, Attila and His Hordes Overrun Italy and the Arts, War hemicycle detail, library of the Palais Bourbon, completed 1847, oil and wax on plaster. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Théâtre Italien, 13 August 1821, 2004.198, lithograph, sheet 25.6 × 18.6 cm. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Macbeth Consulting the Witches, 1825, 22.63.19, lithograph, third state of five. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
- Musée du Louvre, Hamlet et Horatio au cimetière, 1839, RF 1942, oil on canvas, 82 × 65 cm. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
- National Gallery, London, Ovid among the Scythians, 1859, NG6262, oil on canvas, 87.6 × 130.2 cm. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
- Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Abduction of Rebecca, Eugène Louis Lami, 1873, 88.341. Comparative attribution correction; not a Delacroix work. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
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- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, A Wall Decorated in Spanish Tiles, 1832, 2013.1135.16; collection record. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
- National Gallery of Art, Washington, Mephistopheles in the Air, 1828, 1994.60.13; first state of five. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
- The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hamlet Sees the Ghost of His Father on the Terrace, 1843, 22.56.7; first state of five. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
- Eugène Delacroix / Paul Flat and René Piot, editors, Journal, 22 June 1863; Paris: Plon, 1893, volume III, page 438. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
- Musée du Louvre, Apollo Slays Python, 1850–51; INV 3818. Collection record. French. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
- Sotheby’s, A Turkish Man on a Grey Horse, catalogued under Eugène Delacroix; sale N07716, 2001, lot 20. English. Accessed 28 October 2026. View source.
- Splash image, Medea, 1862, oil on canvas. Musée du Louvre; RF 1402. This later variant differs from the large 1838 original in Lille. Shonagon, faithful reproduction via Wikimedia Commons. Image source. Public domain. Whole supplied primary image retained, including documentary/support edges; no appearance editing.


