Eugène Delacroix

Jean Dollfus (1800-1887), Paris;

Baron Vitta (1860-1942), Paris (by 1930);

Claude Roger-Marx (1888-1977), Paris;

Galerie Schmit, Paris (by 1987).

Paris, Louvre Museum, Centenaire du Romantisme. Exposition Eugène Delacroix : Peintures, aquarelles, pastels, dessins, gravures, documents, 1930, no. 428;

Paris, Galerie Schmit, De Corot à Picasso, 1985, no. 69;

Zürich, Kunsthaus, Eugène Delacroix. Arbeiten auf Papier, 1987, no. 61;

Frankfurt, Städtische Galerie im Städelschen Kunstinstitut, Eugène Delacroix. Themen und Variationen arbeiten auf papier, 1987-88, no. A 3;

Paris, Galerie Schmit, Maîtres français, XIX^e-XX^e siècles, 1988, no. 27.

A. Robaut, L'œuvre complet de Eugène Delacroix. Peintures Dessins Gravures Lithographies, Paris 1885, p. 202, no. 753;

Eugène Delacroix. Arbeiten auf Papier (exhibition catalogue), Zürich 1987, illustrated p. 23, no. 61;

Eugène Delacroix. Themen und Variationen arbeiten auf papier (exhibition catalogue), Frankfurt 1987-88, illustrated p. 8, no. A 3.

This sketch, made by Delacroix during his first stay at George Sand's summer residence in Nohant in June 1842, depicts the harsh reality of the rural life of a spinning woman.

The hard profile of the woman, her thinness in contrast to the heavy distaff she carries at arm's length, strongly recalls Goya's Caprices, and in particular Hilan delgado (fig.1; plate 44, Metropolitan Museum, New York, inv. 18.64(44)). As an admirer of the Spanish painter, Delacroix drew freely on this iconography: he added a snake to the feet of the spinner, perhaps also derived from Goya's representations of witches; finally, he gave the model a strong presence thanks to a powerful play of chiaroscuro between dark washes and black ink, demonstrating a technique that the artist had already mastered.