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Painting of man on horse approaching man crouching on ground

A medium-skinned, bearded man in a red hat and green cape sits atop a rearing light-brown horse. The horse has a red blanket and an embellished bridle. The man grips the reins in his left hand. He has a long sword tucked under his right arm. On the ground, a medium-skinned man in colorful robes kneels on the ground looking up at the man on horseback. He holds what appears to be a musket across his body. A sword lies on the ground to his left. In the distance, another man lies facedown on the grass with his eyes closed.

Gallery Text

In the mid-1850s, Delacroix returned to themes he had treated thirty years earlier, though with an important difference. Rather than carefully distinguish literary from historical and topical subjects, he conflated them, as in this instance. Here, he draws on Byron’s description of the giaour (a Turkish slur for non-Muslims) overcoming the Turkish pasha in his poem “The Giaour, a Fragment of a Turkish Tale” (1813). To a contemporary audience, the composition could have appeared to be an episode from the Greek War of Independence (1821–32), a romantic cause célèbre that had inspired two of Delacroix’s large canvases of the 1820s. The result is a nostalgic invention that appealed to mid-century French orientalist fantasies.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.233
People
Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix, French (Charenton Saint-Maurice France 1798 - 1863 Paris France)
Title
A Turk Surrenders to a Greek Horseman
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1856
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/303412

Location

Location
Level 2, Room 2200, European and American Art, 17th–19th century, The Emergence of Romanticism in Early Nineteenth-Century France
View this object's location on our interactive map

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
80 x 64.1 cm (31 1/2 x 25 1/4 in.)
framed: 107.3 x 90.8 x 11.4 cm (42 1/4 x 35 3/4 x 4 1/2 in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
  • Signed: l.l.: Eug. Delacroix 1856

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix, sold; to [Tedesco Frères, Paris, April 1856]. Léon Fraissinet, Marseille, by 1873. Baron de Beurnonville. E. Secrétan, by 1855, sold [his sale, Christie's, London, July 12, 1889, no. 14]; to [Boussod, Valadon et Cie, Paris], sold; to Isidore Montaignac, October 4, 1890. George I. Seney, New York, sold; to [Broussod, Valadon et Cie, Paris, March 9, 1892], sold; to F. L. Ames, New York, March 24, 1892. Louis Sarlin, Paris, by 1910, sold [through his sale, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, March 2, 1918, no. 28], sold; to Herman Heilbuth, Copenhagen, sold [probably on his behalf by Winkel and Magnusson, Copenhagen (?)]. Hodebert, Paris, by 1929. Renou, by 1930. Grenville L. Winthrop [through Martin Birnbaum], November 30, 1930, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.233
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Publication History

  • Adolphe Moreau, Eugene Delacroix et son oeuvre (Paris, 1873), p. 244, no. 1
  • Alfred Robaut, L'Oeuvre complète de Eugène Delacroix, Chavanay Freres (Paris, France, 1885), no. 1293
  • Catalogue de 17 Tableaux Anciens... de la Collection Secrétan, auct. cat., Christie's, London (London, England, July 13, 1889), no. 14, repr.
  • Etienne Moreau-Nélaton, Delacroix reconte par lui-même, Henri Laurens (Paris, France, 1916), vol. II, p. 166, repr. fig. 384
  • Catalogue des Tableaux Modernes... composant la Collection Louis Sarlin, auct. cat., Galerie Georges Petit (London, England, March 2, 1918), no. 28, repr.
  • Raymond Escholier, Delacroix, peintre, graveur, écrivain, Henri Floury (Paris, France, 1926 - 1929), vol. III, repr. opposite p. 230
  • René Huyghe, "L'Exposition Delacroix au Musée du Louvre", Bulletin des Musées de France (June 1930), vol. II, no. 6, pp. 117-134
  • Paul Jamot, Centenaire du Romantisme: Exposition Eugène Delacroix, exh. cat., Musée du Louvre (Paris, France, 1930), no. 170, pp. 101-102
  • Louis Hourticq, Delacroix: l'oeuvre du maitre, Hachette (Paris, France, 1930), repr. p. 168
  • Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix, Journal de Eugène Delacroix, ed. André Joubain, Plon (Paris, France, 1932), vol. II, pp. 210, 442
  • Michel Florisoone, Delacroix, Braun et Cie (Paris, France, 1938), repr.
  • Chinese Sculpture, Bronzes, Jades, Paintings and Drawings, Egyptian and Persian sculpture, Pre-Columbian art; selected from the collection of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1943), p. 10
  • Otto Benesch, "The Winthrop Collection: From Neo-Classic to Romanticism; David, Ingres, Géricault", Art News (January 1-14, 1944), vol. 42, no. 16, pp. 9-10, 20-21, 32, p. 32
  • Between the Empires: Géricault, Delacroix, Chassériau, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1946), p. 9
  • Maria Luisa Saco, "Joyas del arte en los museos Norteamericanos", Cultura Peruana (Lima, Peru, 1957), vol. XVII, no. 105, repr.
  • Beatrice Farwell, "Sources for Delacroix' 'Death of Sardanapalus' ", The Art Bulletin, College Art Association of America (March 1958), vol. XL, no. 1, pp. 66, no. 3
  • S. Lane Faison, Jr., A Guide to the Art Museums of New England, Harcourt, Brace and Co. (New York, 1958), p. 115, repr. as fig. 9
  • Martin Birnbaum, The Last Romantic (New York, NY, 1960), p. 200
  • Philippe Lannes de Montebello, "The Problem of Composition in Eugene Delacroix's Small Canvases" (Thesis, Harvard University?, 1961), Unpublished, p. 11, 1-5
  • Camille Bernard, "Some Aspects of Delacroix's Orientalism", The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, OH, April 1971), p. 126, repr.
  • Frank Anderson Trapp, The Attainment of Delacroix, The Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD and London, England, 1971), pps. 120, 122, repr. in b/w fig. 62
  • Lee Johnson, The Paintings of Eugene Delacroix: A Critical Catalogue, 1816-1831, The Clarendon Press (Oxford & New York, 1981), vol. I, p. 105; vol. 3, p. 142, no. 323
  • Kristin A. Mortimer and William G. Klingelhofer, Harvard University Art Museums: A Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art Museums and Abbeville Press (Cambridge and New York, 1986), no. 205, p. 180, ill.
  • Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900 in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum, Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 1990), p. 73, color plate; pp. 105, 230, repr. b/w cat. no. 291
  • Nadia Tscherny and Guy Stair Sainty, Romance and Chivalry: History and Literature Reflected in Early Nineteenth-Century French Painting, exh. cat., Mathiesen Fine Art Ltd / Stair Sainty Matthiesen Inc. (London, England and New York, NY, 1996), p. 47, fig. 28a
  • Masterpieces of world art : Fogg Art Museum, Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Busch-Reisinger Museum, 1997
  • Chikashi Kitazaki and Mina Oya, ed., Between Reality and Dreams: Nineteenth Century British and French Art from the Winthrop Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, exh. cat., National Museum of Western Art (Ueno, 2002), pp. 94-95, cat. #14, color repr.
  • Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press (U.S.) (New York, 2003), no. 31, pp. 112-113, repr. in color
  • Christopher Riopelle, Harvard's Winthrop Collection: Nineteenth-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, exh. cat., National Gallery Company Limited (London, 2003), p. 32, cat. 19, ill.
  • Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler, Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), no. 31, pp. 118-119, repr. in color
  • Gregoire Hallé, Un duel romantique: 'Le Giaour' de Lord Byron par Delacroix, exh. cat., ed. Claisse Bessède (Paris, 2020), pp. 22, 24, fig. 9

Exhibition History

  • Exposition de chef-d'oeuvre de l'ecole française: vingt peintres du xixe siècle, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, 05/02/1910 - 05/31/1910
  • Exposition Eugène Delacroix: Peintures, aquarelles, pastels, dessins, gravures, documents, Musée du Louvre, Paris Cedex 01, 06/01/1930 - 09/30/1930
  • Chinese sculpture, bronzes, jades, paintings and drawings, Egyptian and Persian sculpture, Pre-Columbian art : selected from the collection of Grenville Lindall Winthrop, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 10/01/1943 - 02/28/1944
  • Between the Empires: Géricault, Delacroix, Chasseriau--Painters of the Romantic Movement, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/30/1946 - 06/01/1946
  • Delacroix in New England Collections, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 10/15/1955 - 11/26/1955
  • Master Paintings from the Fogg Collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/13/1977 - 08/31/1977
  • Masterpieces of European Art, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, 06/22/1985 - 09/15/1985
  • Between Reality and Dreams: Nineteenth Century British and French Art from the Winthrop Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 09/14/2002 - 12/08/2002
  • A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Lyon, 03/15/2003 - 05/26/2003; National Gallery, London, 06/25/2003 - 09/14/2003; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004
  • For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/16/2004
  • Re-View: S424-426 Western Art from 1560 to 1900, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, 08/16/2008 - 06/18/2011
  • Modern Art and Modernity, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 01/31/2013 - 06/01/2013
  • 32Q: 2200 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums, Cambridge, 11/16/2014 - 01/01/2050

Subjects and Contexts

  • Google Art Project

Related Works

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu