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FERDINAND-EUGÈNE-VICTOR DELACROIX (French 1796 - 1875)
Charles VI and Odette de Champdivers, circa 1825
Oil on canvas
14 x 10-3/4 inches
Signed upper left, E. Delacroix

PROVENANCE:
Jules-Alexandre Duval-le-Camus (1814-1878), Paris;
His sale, Maitre Petit, Paris, April 17-18, 1827, no. 38;
Frédéric Leblond, Paris, 1832;
Dumas-Descombes, by 1885;
Thence by descent to his son-in-law, M. Bouriel;
Comtesse Théobald de Vigneral, Paris, by 1964;
Private Collection, Paris, 1991;
Matthiesen Gallery, New York and London;
Richard L. Feigen, New York;
Property of a Gentleman

LITERATURE:
Théophile Silvestre, Histoire des Artistes Vivants Français et Étrangers. Études d'après nature (Paris: Blanchard, 1855), p. 80.
A. Moreau, Delacroix et son oeuvre (Paris: Librairie des Bibliophiles, 1873), p. 116. no. 17.
Alfred Robaut, L'oeuvre complet d'Eugène Delacroix (Paris: Charavay Freres, 1885), no. 137.
E. Moreau-Nelaton, Delacroix raconté par lui-meme, vol. 1 (Paris: Laurens, 1916), p. 141.
"Un Delacroix reapparait grâce a l'exposition du Louvre", Connaissance des Arts, no. 137 (July 1963), p. 21, illus.
M. Serullaz, "A Comment on the Delacroix Exhibition organized in England", Burlington Magazine, vol. 107 (1965), p. 366.
Lee Johnson, "Some Historical sketches by Delacroix", Burlington Magazine, vol. 115 (1973), p. 672, no. 1.
Lee Johnson, The paintings of Eugène Delacroix, vol. 1 (Oxford: University Printing House, 1981), p. 96; vol. 2, p. 96, illus., detail p. 85.

PRINT:
Lithograph by Maurin, Bibliographie de la France (March 11, 1826), p. 205, gravure 156.


EXHIBITED:
Musée Colbert, Paris, "Explication des ouvrages de peinture (...)exposés à la galerie du Musée Colbert, le 6 mai 1832, par MM. les artistes, au profit des indigents (...) de Paris, atteints de la maladie épidémique", May 6, 1832, no. 144, loaned by M. Leblond.
École Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Paris, "Exposition Eugène Delacroix au profit de la souscription destinée à élèver à Paris un monument à sa memoire", March 6 - April 15 1885, no. 73.
Royal Scottish Academy, London Royal Academy of Arts, Edinburgh, "Delacroix. An exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Lithographs sponsored by the Edinburgh Festival Society and arranged by the Arts Council of Great Britain in Association with the Royal Scottish Academy", August 15 - September 13 and October 1 - November 8, 1964, no. 11.
Musée de l'Ain, Bourg-en-Bresse, "Le Style Troubadour", June 26 - October 4, 1971, no. 15.
Seventh Regiment Armory, New York, "International Fine Art Fair", May 7 - May 12, 1999.
Tate Gallery, London, "Constable to Delacroix: British Art and the French Romantics", February 5 - May 11, 2003, no. 62.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, "Crossing the Channel: British and French Painting in the Age of Romanticism", October 7, 2003 - January 4, 2004, no. 62.

This painting depicts an episode from the life of Charles VI (1368-1422), the tormented French king who was exhausted by his country's losses in the war with England and by his wife's infidelities. He also suffered from violent and uncontrolled fantasies in his own mind. In this scene, the distraught king reaches for his sword, which his attendants attempt to take from him. Charles turns to his mistress, Odette de Champdivers, who holds his hand and cautions him against his suicidal impulse.

Charles VI and Odette de Champdivers is an excellent example of the dramatic subject matter of Romanticism, which focused on such themes as suffering, insanity, violence, and death. In fact, Delacroix is considered the embodiment of the Romantic Movement and the last true history painter in Europe. His artistic virtuosity is evident in passages of richly colored clothing and textiles, which create a superb sense of tactility. The work is in its original frame and is also unlined, making it one of the finest Delacroix paintings to come on the art market in recent years.

The painting belongs to a series of similarly-sized pictures of historical and/or literary subjects that Delacroix created in the 1820s, describing them in his journal as "several little pictures, but all labors of love" (April 9, 1824) (The Journal of Eugene Delacroix, translated by Walter Pach (1980), p. 72). The life of Charles VI was an especially popular Romantic subject at the time: the Delaville play, Charles VI, opened in Paris on March 6, 1826; Maurin's lithograph of Delacroix's painting was published five days later on March 11, 1826. Considering the publication date of the lithograph, which was probably made shortly after Delacroix finished the painting, the work itself most likely dates to late 1825 (see Johnson, 1981, vol. 1, p. 97, in Literature above).

Note: In Johnson's catalogue entry for the work (op. cit., p. 96), the signature is incorrectly listed as in the "bottom right"; the signature is in black in the upper left corner of the painting.