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

When Delacroix revisited the subject of the sultan in 1856, he further stripped away references to the 1832 diplomatic audience he had witnessed. In a drawing preparatory to a smaller painting, he shifted the leader’s attention to the left and eliminated the ministers and advisers, replacing them with servants who attend to the ruler’s comfort, using long pieces of white cloth to swat away insects.

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.