Peasant Women from the Region of the Eaux-Bonnes

1845·Watercolor, with touches of gouache, over traces of graphite, on cream wove paper, laid down on cream wove paper·34 × 26.2 cm (13 7/16 × 10 3/8 in.)

<p>In the summer of 1845, Delacroix went to the Pyrenees to take the waters at the spa of Eaux-Bonnes near the Spanish border, where he delighted in the natural dignity of the local peasants and the beauty of their colorful dress.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1845
Medium: Watercolor, with touches of gouache, over traces of graphite, on cream wove paper, laid down on cream wove paper
Dimensions: 34 × 26.2 cm (13 7/16 × 10 3/8 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Eugene Delacroix

Artist

Eugene Delacroix

Painting

Born in 1789 in Paris, French Romantic painter Eugéne Delacroix received his early training from Pierre Guérin in a classicist vein. While that approach would have little effect on Delacroix’s ultimate artistic development, it was through this connection that he met the painter Théodore Gericault, creator of the masterwork Raft of the Medusa, 1818–19, a work for which Delacroix posed. Ultimately, Delacroix drew most of his inspiration from the plethora of art available for him to study at the Louvre. He was also exposed to a wide of array of literature, including the writing of Shakespeare, Byron, and Scott. It was those literary sources that would ultimately be the catalyst to Delacroix’s full embrace of Romanticism, despite the growing popularity of Neoclassicism.

Charenton-Saint-Maurice, France

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