Head, Shoulder, and Foot, Studies for "Scenes from the Chios Massacres"

Head, Shoulder, and Foot, Studies for "Scenes from the Chios Massacres"

Eugène Delacroix

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This study of a cadaverous figure relates to Delacroix’s ambitious submission to the Salon of 1824, "Scenes from the Massacres at Chios" (1823; Musée du Louvre). The slaughter of tens of thousands of Greeks by Ottoman troops on the island of Chios escalated the Greek War of Independence (1821−30), and these events, which riveted the French public, fueled Delacroix’s conception of his canvas. The moribund expression of the head in the drawing conveys the shock and disbelief of a witness to inhumane tragedy.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Head, Shoulder, and Foot, Studies for "Scenes from the Chios Massacres"Head, Shoulder, and Foot, Studies for "Scenes from the Chios Massacres"Head, Shoulder, and Foot, Studies for "Scenes from the Chios Massacres"Head, Shoulder, and Foot, Studies for "Scenes from the Chios Massacres"Head, Shoulder, and Foot, Studies for "Scenes from the Chios Massacres"

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.