Study for "The Sultan of Morocco and His Entourage"

Study for "The Sultan of Morocco and His Entourage"

Eugène Delacroix

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This drawing shows the final composition for the largest painting Delacroix made based on his experience in North Africa, his submission to the Salon of 1845. The Franco-Moroccan war of 1844 must have reignited his interest in the sultan as a subject. By that time, however, the ambassadorial mission was seen as a failure, and Delacroix excluded the French delegation from the group. The omission shifts the work from a record of diplomatic ceremony to an imposing portrait of a ruler.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Study for "The Sultan of Morocco and His Entourage"Study for "The Sultan of Morocco and His Entourage"Study for "The Sultan of Morocco and His Entourage"Study for "The Sultan of Morocco and His Entourage"Study for "The Sultan of Morocco and His Entourage"

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.