The six months in Morocco who changed the life of Eugène Delacroix

Paintings, drawings, engravings … so many artistic productions were bequeathed by Delacroix to the painter Charles Cournault (1815 – 1904). Until today, these works given to the National Museum Eugène Delacroix in 1952 by the heirs of Cournault allowed to study the as realistic as a phantasmagorical of the orientalist but singular work of Delacroix. His achievements can also be contemplated, appreciated and studied during the numerous exhibitions paying tribute to Delacroix, and especially to his sources of inspiration where Morocco holds a large place.

Delacroix’s trip to Morocco began in January 1832 to last six months. The opportunity was for this young artist to design hundreds of sketches and watercolors, carefully preserved over the decades. Throughout his career and until his death in 1863, the whole of his work thus constituted a tribute to the figures and spaces of his worldly daily in North Africa.

Like a lyrical ode which drew up the uprooting, his memories of Morocco mingled with an imaginary and sensitive vision, also drawing his inspiration from the literature of his time.

A diplomatic mission in the background

Nothing predicted that a name like that of Eugène Delacroix, still little known at the time, would shine in a thousand lights with art professionals and would receive many orders from the French State, the day after his return from Morocco. Besides, even this trip was not planned. However, a last minute change marked this turning point in the artistic life of Delacroix.

In 1830, French troops landed in Algiers. In stride, Tlemcen tribes leaders lent allegiance to Sultan Moulay Abderrahmane (1822 – 1859), requesting its protection and recognizing the supervision of the Cherifian kingdom on the west of Algeria. In France, the initiative was not perceived with a good eye. Determined to have their hands on North Africa, the occupation advocated to declare the area as a neutral territory, delimiting its borders with those of Moulay Abderrahmane.

The Sultan of Morocco, Eugène Delacroix (1845)

Before intervening more and more in the management of political and economic affairs of Alaouites, Louis-Philippe I^er (1830 – 1848) proposed a diplomatic solution concerning the status of Tlemcen and Oran. To do this, Count Charles-Edgar de Mornay (1803-1878) was sent to the Moroccan sultan in 1832. The French diplomat was accompanied by a delegation carrying “a message of peace”. Its mission was accomplished: France obtained the withdrawal of the troops of Moulay Abderrahmane from the west of Algeria and the borders were traced.

Collector of works of art before investing in politics, Mornay’s account wanted to be accompanied by a painter. The choice brought to the watercolorist Eugène Isabey (1803-1886), but he withdrew. Little known but talented and above all very inspired by the style of Isabey, Eugène Delacroix was called in reinforcement, provided that he pays for the costs of this incongruous stay. Initially planning to perfect his artistic journey in Italy, the young painter found himself embedded in the direction of Tangier, January 11, 1832.

In the travel diaries in Morocco of Eugène Delacroix in 1832, Cerise Fedini indicates that this choice was not pure coincidence, at least with regard to French diplomacy:

A click in North Africa

Despite his interest in the orientalist paintings of his elders, Delacroix found “lifeless” an important part of this work, according to Cerise Fedini. This trip therefore allowed him to discover Andalusia, Morocco and Algeria through its own sensitivity, which undoubtedly made the singularity of its orientalist work but resolutely different from previous artistic productions in the genre.

The women of Algiers in their apartment, Eugène Delacroix (1834)

In North Africa, Delacroix was dazzled by the landscapes, fascinated by architecture and strongly challenged by the art of living of Muslim and Jewish populations. He took notes, made sketches and watercolors, which translated his first impressions. He arrived in Tangier on January 24, 1832. Seven notebooks constituted his travel journal, but only four were preserved. “Memories of a trip to Morocco” were written years later, retracing the painter’s personal experience.

In the space of a day, Eugène Delacroit was immediately overwhelmed by so many impressions, which he shared in a letter on January 25, to Jean-Baptiste Pierret:

Before setting foot in the northern city, Delacroix had made a first watercolor aboard The pearl. He represented “purple blue mountains, in a game between the clarity of the walls and the white of the paper”.

View of Tangier, Eugène Delacroix (1832)

In a caravan, the delegation of which Delacroix was a part was led to Meknès on March 5, making several stops along the way. His trips, punctuated by outings with Charles de Mornay, constituted new opportunities each time to observe, make a sketch and take notes. He notably noted that the inhabitants of the region were “near the nature in a thousand ways. Beauty is united with everything they do. ”

Delacroix arrived in Meknes on March 15 and stayed there for two weeks. On the spot, he met Sultan Moulay Abderrahmane. During a solemn audience held on the 22nd of the same month, the painter made many sketches. The hearing consisted in negotiations with the Moroccan sultan, to whom these were offered. In exchange, he gave a gift to the French king, signifying the end of the disputes between the two countries.

Celebrity after the return

The French delegation returned to Tangier on April 12, pending the signing of the Treaty by the Sultan. In May, Delacroix went alone to Cadiz and Seville, before returning to Tangier for another eight days. A stopover in Oran and another in Algiers led him to Toulon, with the other members of the delegation on July 5.

At the head of a new school of painting, Eugène Delacroix had been named knight since 1831. But after this trip, he undoubtedly became the French painter admired by all, both in the salons and in the government. He was then appointed officer in 1846, then commander of the Legion of Honor in 1855, as a major painter who accompanied an Embassy on an official trip.

Fantasia, Eugène Delacroix (1832)

Throughout his life, Delacroix regularly returned to the North African theme through more than eighty paintings, notably the women of Algiers in their apartment (1834), the Jewish wedding in Morocco (1841), the Sultan of Morocco (1845). More than a simplistic attempt to calculate a world seen as “exotic”, all of his works translated the impressions of an artist discovering a new inspiring universe. Curator at the Louve museum who welcomed an exhibition Retrospective of the painter, Marie-Pierre Salé explains it:

In this regard, the painter had noted, on his return, that “the aspect of this country will always remain in [ses] Eyes ”and that the Maghreb men and women would be agitated in my memory, as long as he was alive.