Dominus Venustas

Delacroix, various drawings, c.mid-19th century

‘Colour always occupies me but drawing preoccupies me’. - Delacroix

Delacroix made many different kinds of drawings - studies of individual figures, descriptive notes on costumes, drawings from Old Masters, drawings to understand construction of form and even fleeting impressions. Not always ‘correct’, they are rather expressions of extreme emotion. Exaggerated and intense. They have rhythm….a life of their own. Expressive, impressive stuff. One must be bold to extremity; without daring, and even extreme daring, there is no beauty. (Delacroix)

He was daring and committed to his ideas and to painting his ideas. Why am I not a poet? But at least, let me feel as strongly as possible in all my pictures the emotion that I want to pass on to others! (Delacroix)