Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix

Comte de Mornay, Paris;
his estate sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 29 March 1877, lot 4 (to the Marquis de Lavalette 615FF.);
thence by inheritance to his widow Georgina, née Flahault (d.1907);  thence by descent to the present owner

A. Robaut, L'Oeuvre complet d'Eugène Delacroix, Paris 1885, p. 132, no. 495;
L. Johnson, 'Towards a reconstruction of Delacroix's Mornay Album', in The Burlington Magazine, February 2003, pp. 92-95, reproduced fig. 33

This condition report has been provided by Jane McAusland, Conservator and Restorer of Art on Paper, Nether Hall Barn, Old Newton, Nr. Stowmarket, Suffolk IP14 4PP. Eugene Delacroix Vue de la ville et de la rade de Tanger Watercolour, ink and pencil on paper Support This drawing, on a wove paper, is extended at the edges with paper and secured to the back of an overlay mount. This arrangement prevents the extreme edges of the work from being viewed. The condition is good. Medium The more delicate pigments have faded and this is evident in the clouds which were probably a little pinker and in the sunset on the horizon. The blue in the man's baggy pants would have been a little darker and probably indigo pigment, which is sensitive to light. Otherwise the colours are good and bright.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Executed in 1832, Vue de la rade et de la ville de Tanger belongs to a suite of eighteen signed watercolors that Delacroix executed for the Comte de Mornay while travelling in his party on a diplomatic mission to meet the Sultan at Meknes, Morocco.  The group, originally bound in an album, was dispersed at the Count's estate sale in 1877, and the present work has only recently come to light.

In an article highlighting this rediscovery, the late Lee Johnson listed the locations of all but two of the watercolors.¹  Many of the other examples from the album are now in public collections, including the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass., the Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt and the Fine Arts Museum, San Francisco.

The subjects that Delacroix selected to record during the trip range from portraits of dignitaries in formal attire and studies of figures in local costume to views of military encampments, soldiers sleeping or dramatic spectacles that he witnessed with Mornay.  Johnson describes the present work as 'exceptional', being the only marine view in the group.  He conjectures that the identity of the standing figure in the present work may indeed be the 'Capitaine du Port' of Tangier, '...since his features bear a marked resemblance to those in two pen-and-ink sketches of a head noted by Delacroix as "tete (sic) du capitaine du port a Tanger" on a sheet of miscellaneous notes and drawings that post-date the Moroccan journey.  The present watercolor is also distinctive as being one of the subjects which were not treated in later variants.  The only painting which might be considered a variant is the expansive View of Tangier from the seashore of 1858, where the man on the left, who appears to be supervising the beaching of the boat, could be another evocation of the Captain of the Port.  Johnson also notes the existence of a detailed pencil study which relates to the present watercolor.

1. Op.cit., see Literature

2. Ibid., p. 94