A UK Show About Delacroix’s Influence Is Sorely Missing His Work

HYPERALLERGIC
By Olivia McEwan

Eugène Delacroix, “Christ on the Sea of Galilee” (1853), cil on canvas, 50.8 x 61 cm, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, H. O. Havemeyer Collection, Bequest of Mrs. H. O. Havemeyer, 1929 (image © The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

UNITED KINGDOM---What a shame, then, that its follow-up, "Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art," conversely suffers from too few of Delacroix’s works and far too much of the “modern art.” The exhibition is more successful when it focuses on stylistic influence; Delacroix was considered a pioneer because his painterly approach departed from the Romantic movement’s slavish adherence to realism, using pure color — rather than composition — to communicate emotional and spiritual content. For once, there is convincing evidence of this in a sequence examining Delacroix’s religious works. [link]