© President and Fellows of Harvard College

© President and Fellows of Harvard College
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© President and Fellows of Harvard College
Gallery Text
In the mid-1850s, Delacroix returned to themes he had
treated thirty years earlier, though with an important
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difference. Rather than carefully distinguish literary
from historical and topical subjects, he conflated them,
as in this instance. Here, he draws on Byron’s
description of the giaour (a Turkish slur for nonMuslims) overcoming the Turkish pasha in his poem
“The Giaour, a Fragment of a Turkish Tale” (1813). To a
contemporary audience, the composition could have
appeared to be an episode from the Greek War of
Independence (1821–32), a romantic cause célèbre
that had inspired two of Delacroix’s large canvases of
the 1820s. The result is a nostalgic invention that
appealed to mid-century French orientalist fantasies.
Identification and Creation
Object Number
1943.233
People
Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix, French (Charenton
Saint-Maurice France 1798 - 1863 Paris France)
Title
A Turk Surrenders to a Greek Horseman
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
1856
Culture
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French
Location
Level 2, Room 2200, European and American Art, 17th–
19th century, The Emergence of Romanticism in Early
Nineteenth-Century France
View this object's location on our interactive map
Physical Descriptions
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
80 x 64.1 cm (31 1/2 x 25 1/4 in.)
framed: 107.3 x 90.8 x 11.4 cm (42 1/4 x 35 3/4 x 4 1/2
in.)
Inscriptions and Marks
Signed: l.l.: Eug. Delacroix 1856
Provenance
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix, sold; to [Tedesco
Frères, Paris, April 1856]. Léon Fraissinet, Marseille, by
1873. Baron de Beurnonville. E. Secrétan, by 1855, sold
[his sale, Christie's, London, July 12, 1889, no. 14]; to
[Boussod, Valadon et Cie, Paris], sold; to Isidore
Montaignac, October 4, 1890. George I. Seney, New
York, sold; to [Broussod, Valadon et Cie, Paris, March 9,
1892], sold; to F. L. Ames, New York, March 24, 1892.
Louis Sarlin, Paris, by 1910, sold [through his sale,
Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, March 2, 1918, no. 28],
sold; to Herman Heilbuth, Copenhagen, sold [probably
on his behalf by Winkel and Magnusson, Copenhagen
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(?)]. Hodebert, Paris, by 1929. Renou, by 1930. Grenville
L. Winthrop [through Martin Birnbaum], November 30,
1930, bequest; to Fogg Art Museum, 1943.
Acquisition and Rights
Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of
Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.233
Division
European and American Art
Contact
[email protected]
Publication History
Adolphe Moreau, Eugene Delacroix et son Oeuvre
(Paris, France, 1873), p. 244, no. 1
Alfred Robaut, L'Oeuvre Complète de Eugène
Delacroix, Chavanay Freres (Paris, France, 1885), no.
1293
Catalogue de 17 Tableaux Anciens... de la Collection
Secrétan, auct. cat., Christie's, London (London,
England, July 13, 1889), no. 14, repr.
Etienne Moreau-Nélaton, Delacroix Reconte par Lui-
Même, Henri Laurens (Paris, France, 1916), vol. II, p.
166, repr. fig. 384
Catalogue des Tableaux Modernes... composant la
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Collection Louis Sarlin, auct. cat., Galerie Georges Petit
(London, England, March 2, 1918), no. 28, repr.
Raymond Escholier, Delacroix, Peintre, Graveur,
Ecrivain, Henri Floury (Paris, France, 1926 - 1929), vol.
III, repr. opposite p. 230
René Huyghe, "L'Exposition Delacroix au Musée du
Louvre", Bulletin des Musées de France (June 1930),
vol. II, no. 6, pp. 117-134
Paul Jamot, Centenaire du Romantisme: Exposition
Eugène Delacroix, exh. cat., Musée du Louvre (Paris,
France, 1930), no. 170, pp. 101-102
Louis Hourticq, Delacroix: l'oeuvre du maitre, Hachette
(Paris, France, 1930), repr. p. 168
Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix, Journal de Eugène
Delacroix, ed. André Joubain, Plon (Paris, France,
1932), vol. II, pp. 210, 442
Michel Florisoone, Delacroix, Braun et Cie (Paris,
France, 1938), repr.
Chinese Sculpture, Bronzes, Jades, Paintings and
Drawings, Egyptian and Persian sculpture, PreColumbian art; selected from the collection of Grenville
Lindall Winthrop, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum
(Cambridge, MA, 1943), p. 10
Otto Benesch, "The Winthrop Collection: From NeoClassic to Romanticism; David, Ingres, Géricault", Art
News (January 1-14, 1944), vol. 42, no. 16, pp. 9-10, 2021, 32, p. 32
Between the Empires: Géricault, Delacroix, Chassériau,
exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1946), p.
9
Maria Luisa Saco, "Joyas del arte en los museos
Norteamericanos", Cultura Peruana (Lima, Peru, 1957),
vol. XVII, no. 105, repr.
Beatrice Farwell, "Sources for Delacroix' 'Death of
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Sardanapalus' ", The Art Bulletin, College Art
Association of America (March 1958), vol. XL, no. 1, pp.
66, no. 3
S. Lane Faison, Jr., A Guide to the Art Museums of New
England, Harcourt, Brace and Co. (New York, NY, 1958),
p. 115, repr. as fig. 9
Martin Birnbaum, The Last Romantic (New York, NY,
1960), p. 200
Philippe Lannes de Montebello, "The Problem of
Composition in Eugene Delacroix's Small Canvases"
(Thesis, Harvard University?, 1961), Unpublished, p. 11,
1-5
Camille Bernard, "Some Aspects of Delacroix's
Orientalism", The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of
Art, Cleveland Museum of Art (Cleveland, OH, April
1971), p. 126, repr.
Frank Anderson Trapp, The Attainment of Delacroix,
The Johns Hopkins University Press (Baltimore, MD and
London, England, 1971), pps. 120, 122, repr. in b/w fig.
62
Lee Johnson, The Paintings of Eugene Delacroix: a
critical catalogue, 1816-1831, The Clarendon Press
(Oxford & New York, 1981), vol. I, p. 105; vol. 3, p. 142,
no. 323
Kristin A. Mortimer, Harvard University Art Museums: A
Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art
Museums/Abbeville Press (Cambridge, MA; New York,
NY, 1985), no. 205, p. 180, ill.
Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900
in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue
including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum ,
Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA,
1990), p. 73, color plate; pp. 105, 230, repr. b/w cat. no.
291
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Chikashi Kitazaki, ed., Between Reality and Dreams:
Nineteenth Century British and French Art from the
Winthrop Collection of the Fogg Art Museum , exh. cat.,
National Museum of Western Art (Ueno, Japan, 2002),
pp. 94-95, cat. #14, color repr.
Stephan Wolohojian, ed., A Private Passion: 19th-
Century Paintings and Drawings from the Grenville L.
Winthrop Collection, Harvard University, exh. cat., The
Metropolitan Museum of Art and Yale University Press
(New York, NY, 2003), no. 31, pp. 112-113, repr. in color
Christopher Riopelle, Harvard's Winthrop Collection:
Nineteenth-Century Paintings and Drawings from the
Grenville L. Winthrop Collection, exh. cat., National
Gallery Company Limited (London, 2003), p. 32, cat.
19, ill.
Stephan Wolohojian, Ingres, Burne-Jones, Whistler,
Renoir... La Collection Grenville L. Winthrop, exh. cat.,
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon and Réunion des
Musées Nationaux (Paris, France, 2003), no. 31, pp.
118-119, repr. in color
Exhibition History
Exposition de chef-d'oeuvre de l'ecole française: vingt
peintres du xixe siècle, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris,
05/02/1910 - 05/31/1910
Exposition Eugène Delacroix: Peintures, aquarelles,
pastels, dessins, gravures, documents, Musée du
Louvre, Paris Cedex 01, 06/01/1930 - 09/30/1930
Chinese sculpture, bronzes, jades, paintings and
drawings, Egyptian and Persian sculpture, PreColumbian art : selected from the collection of
Grenville Lindall Winthrop, Fogg Art Museum,
Cambridge, 10/01/1943 - 02/28/1944
Between the Empires: Gericault, Delacroix, Chasseriau-
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-Painters of the Romantic Movement, Fogg Art
Museum, Cambridge, 04/30/1946 - 06/01/1946
Delacroix in New England Collections, Fogg Art
Museum, Cambridge, 10/15/1955 - 11/26/1955
Master Paintings from the Fogg Collection, Fogg Art
Museum, Cambridge, 04/13/1977 - 08/31/1977
Masterpieces of European Art, Busch-Reisinger
Museum, Cambridge, 06/22/1985 - 09/15/1985
Between Reality and Dreams: Nineteenth Century
British and French Art from the Winthrop Collection of
the Fogg Art Museum , National Museum of Western
Art, Tokyo, 09/14/2002 - 12/08/2002
A Private Passion: 19th-Century Paintings and
Drawings from the Grenville L. Winthrop Collection,
Harvard University, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon,
Lyon, 03/15/2003 - 05/26/2003; National Gallery,
London, 06/25/2003 - 09/14/2003; The Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York, 10/23/2003 - 01/25/2004
For Students of Art and Lovers of Beauty: Highlights
from the Collection of Grenville L. Winthrop, Harvard
University Art Museums, Fogg Art Museum,
Cambridge, 04/16/2004
Re-View: S424-426 Western Art from 1560 to 1900,
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum,
Cambridge, 08/16/2008 - 06/18/2011
Modern Art and Modernity, Harvard Art Museums,
Cambridge, 01/31/2013 - 06/01/2013
32Q: 2200 19th Century, Harvard Art Museums,
Cambridge, 11/01/2014
Subjects and Contexts
Google Art Project
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff
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but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently
revised and enhanced. For more information please
contact the Division of European and American Art at
[email protected]
Generated on February 15, 2017 at 12:12pm
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