Eugène Delacroix : Carnets De Voyage Au Maghreb Et En Andalousie

Limited edition of 1000 numbered copies

From January to June 1832, Eugène Delacroix accompanied the diplomatic mission led by Count Charles de Mornay to the Moroccan Sultan Moulay Abd er-Rahman. He stayed in Tangiers, went to Meknes for an official audience, left on his return to Tangiers for southern Spain, where he spent a fortnight, returned to Tangiers and then, on his way back to France, stopped briefly in Oran and Algiers, recently conquered territories, before arriving in Toulon.

Along the way, the painter kept detailed notes in notebooks about his experiences, and sketches and drawings to record what he had seen. Seven of these notebooks were sold posthumously from the painter's studio in 1864; six have now been identified, two of which were found in 2018. They are among Delacroix's finest achievements and the most remarkable testimony to a great work in progress.

The present facsimile includes complete reproductions in the original formats of the six known notebooks (three in the Musée du Louvre, one in the Musée Condé in Chantilly, one in the Museums of Qatar, and one in private hands). The richly illustrated commentary book recounts the political context of this trip and its decisive impact on Delacroix's thinking and art. All the texts written in the notebooks are transcribed, enabling us to follow his discoveries, reflections and aesthetic emotions step by step, day by day. Finally, biographies of each of the personalities discussed in his notes are included in the appendices.