A Romantic Duel: Delacroix's fascination for the Giaour by Lord Byron
3 September 2020
From 16 December 2020 to 23 August 2021, the Musée National Eugène-Delacroix invites visitors to the encounter between a great painter and a great writer from the 19th century, at a time when all of Europe was captivated by the Greek struggle for independence.
In May 1824, when Eugène Delacroix first read Lord Byron’s poem The Giaour, a story of love, betrayal and murderous revenge set in Greece under Turkish rule, he wrote in his journal: ‘Do The Giaour.’
Eugène Delacroix executed several paintings and a lithograph based on the story, almost all of which depict the Giaour and the Pasha fighting. The comparison of these works, along with the drawings and objects on display, offer new insight into the painter’s creative process. The exhibition also shows how artists such as Hector Berlioz, Ary Scheffer and Alexandre Dumas illustrated The Giaour up until the 20th century.
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Organised by:
Claire Bessède, Director of the Musée National Eugène-Delacroix
Grégoire Hallé, Director of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Draguignan
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