Sunset

Eugène Delacroix

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Around 1849–50, Delacroix became captivated by the challenge of capturing the light effects of cloud formations and chose pastel to convey his impressions. While he used the medium throughout his career, the sky studies constitute his largest cohesive group in pastel. Delacroix’s sensitive analysis of color is evident both in the drawing and in a corresponding description of a sunset in his journal: "The gray of the clouds in the evenings verges on blue; the clear parts of the sky are bright yellow or orange. . . . The greater the contrast, the more brilliant the effect." He noted making such a drawing "with an eye to my ceiling," likely referring to his recent commission for the Apollo Gallery in the Louvre, which ultimately featured radiating sunbeams surrounding the central figure.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art