Head of an Old Greek Woman

Head of an Old Greek Woman is a painting completed in 1824 by the French Romantic artist Eugène Delacroix.[1] It is a study for his large oil painting The Massacre at Chios ("Scène des massacres de Scio"); a depiction of the Chios massacre which occurred in 1821 during the Greek War of Independence. The final work was completed for that year's Paris Salon. The final work was heavily influenced by both Spanish influenced and the French artist Théodore Géricault, and shows the woman in full-length seated to the right next to a gruesomely depicted female corspe.[2][3]

Final depiction on The Massacre at Chios
Head of a Woman (1823) by Eugène Delacroix. 41.5 cm (16.3 in) × 33.3 cm (13.1 in)

The painting is bust-length. It was painted from life with oil on canvas[1] or graphite. The image is tightly cropped, emphasising her fearful and near weeping gaze.[2] Her black dress, long dark hair, face and neck are rendered using chiaroscuro, although the final image is far more colourful.

Head of a Woman is owned by the Fine Arts museum of Orléans, France,[2] and is on long term loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.[1]

References
  1. "Head of an Old Greek Woman, Eugène Delacroix, French, 1824". Metropolitan Museum of Art. Retrieved 16 March 2023
  2. Tinterow (2003), p. 477
  3. Allard (2018), p.25

Sources
  • Allard, Sébastian. Delacroix. Yale University Press, 2018. ISBN 978-1-5883-9651-8
  • Tinterow, Garry. Manet/Velazquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting. Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003. ISBN 978-1-5883-9040-0
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.