Saada, the Wife of Abraham Ben-Chimol, and Préciada, One of Their Daughters

Saada, the Wife of Abraham Ben-Chimol, and Préciada, One of Their Daughters

Eugène Delacroix

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Delacroix produced this sumptuous watercolor on a trip to North Africa in 1832. He accompanied his friend the Count de Mornay on his mission as good-will ambassador to the Sultan of Morocco, Abd-er-Rahman II. Assigned to the delegation as dragoman was the Jewish interpreter Abraham Ben-Chimol (Abraham Benchimol) of Tangiers, who introduced the Frenchmen to his wife and to his daughter, pictured here in her bridal attire. In his "Journal," Delacroix described in extensive detail a Jewish wedding he attended in Tangiers on February 21, 1832.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Saada, the Wife of Abraham Ben-Chimol, and Préciada, One of Their DaughtersSaada, the Wife of Abraham Ben-Chimol, and Préciada, One of Their DaughtersSaada, the Wife of Abraham Ben-Chimol, and Préciada, One of Their DaughtersSaada, the Wife of Abraham Ben-Chimol, and Préciada, One of Their DaughtersSaada, the Wife of Abraham Ben-Chimol, and Préciada, One of Their Daughters

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.