(In the Louvre)
A great reader of English literature, Delacroix found the inspiration
for many remarkable paintings in the works of Byron, who was one of the
idols of the French Romanticists. As was his wont, Delacroix produced
several versions of this subject, which shows Zuleika trying to prevent
Selim from giving the signal to his comrades. A smaller variant,
painted like the Louvre picture in 1843, and measuring only 14 in. by
10 in., realised the high price of L1282 at public auction in 1874.
[Illustration: PLATE V.--THE BRIDE OF ABYDOS]
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"The Assassination of the Bishop of Liege" was painted in 1829, the
same year to which we owe that superbly handled and strangely
fascinating auto-portrait of the artist at the Louvre, which he left to
his faithful servant, Jenny le Guillou, on condition that she should
give it to the Louvre on the day when the Orleans family were to gain
once more possession of the throne. This event did not come to pass,
but the picture nevertheless reached its final destination by gift of
Mme. Durieu in 1872. Delacroix's strangely fascinating personality is
completely revealed in this masterpiece of artistic auto-biography. In
every feature it recalls that famous description of the master given by
Baudelaire in his series of critical essays, "L'Art Romantique":--
"He was all energy, but energy derived from the nerves and the will;
for, physically, he was frail and delicate. The tiger, watching its
prey, has less light in its eyes and has less impatient quivering in
its muscles, than could be perceived in our great painter when with his
whole soul he flung himself on an idea or endeavoured to seize a dream.
The very physical character of his physiognomy, his Peruvian or Malay
complexion; his eyes which were large and black but had narrowed owing
to the habit of half closing them when fixing an object, and seemed to
test the light; his abundant and glossy hair; his obstinate forehead;
his tight-drawn lips to which the perpetual tension of the will had
given a cruel expression--in a word, his whole person suggested the
thought of an exotic origin."
It is interesting to note how completely this vivid description of the
mature man tallies not only with the painted portrait of Delacroix at
the age of thirty-one, but with another description of the adolescent,
left by his college friend, Philarete Chasle, who speaks of him as "a
lad, with olive-hued forehead, flashing eyes, a mobile face with
prematurely sunken cheeks, abundant wavy black hair, betraying southern
origin."