Madame Henri François Riesener (Félicité Longrois, 1786–1847)

Eugène Delacroix

1835 · Oil on canvas · European Paintings

Delacroix rarely portrayed anyone other than his closest family and friends. His affection for Madame Riesener, an aunt by marriage, is expressed through the frank tenderness of this portrait. She was once known for her beauty: some thirty years before the date of this portrait she served as a lady-in-waiting to empress Josephine, and having caught Napoleon’s eye, engaged in a brief liaison with him. After she died, Delacroix wrote to George Sand, "each of the beings necessary to our existence who disappears, takes away with him a whole world of feelings that no other relationship can revive."

Artist

Eugène Delacroix

Date

1835

Medium

Oil on canvas

Department

European Paintings

Credit line

Gift of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 1994