Delacroix pearl necklace is exquisite
I recently saw the Delacroix retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. The exhibit is the first Delacroix retrospective in North America and has about 150 of his works. The Met organized it with the Louvre, but not all of the paintings that were in the Louvre exhibition earlier this year are part of the NY exhibit.
I was disappointed that the only Delacroix that I knew, July 28, 1930: Liberty Leading the People, was one that stayed in France.
Eugene Delacroix: July 28, 1930: Liberty Leading the People. Oil on canvas.
But I didn’t care about that once I saw Women of Algiers in their Apartment. This huge painting (7 and a half feet across by nearly 6 feet high) is just sumptuous.
Eugene Delacroix: Women of Algiers in their Apartment. Oil on canvas.
I have learned that painting anything that is complex, let alone big, is just SO hard. The artistic talent of all of the greats just blows me away, but now that I am learning to paint, myself, I realize that they had not only talent but ALSO amazing stick-to-it-iveness.
A detail from this painting just stunned me. I took this close-up picture of it:
Eugene Delacroix: Detail from Women of Algiers in their Apartment. Oil on canvas.
Seeing this necklace was worth the whole show. Can you imagine painting each one of those little pearls in a work as big as this? You go, Delacroix.
The exhibit closes on January 6.
PS. There are only two watercolors in the show:
Marian Wiseman
Watercolorist
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THE WEDNESDAY STUDIO 
Great report, Marian. Wish I had seen it when I was up there. Anne
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Thanks, Marian, for the close-up view. A big painting like that is an immersive experience, isn’t it, so you would need to paint all the pearls, but what an undertaking!
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Wonderful review. The pearls are exquisite and you were so right to focus on them.
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Thanks for sharimg the news of this show. I’ll try to see it when I’m in NY!
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