Götz von Berlichingen Writing His Memoirs

Eugène Delacroix

1840–42 or 1849 · Graphite on beige wove paper · Robert Lehman Collection

Many of Delacroix’s graphic works represent literary texts. This sheet is likely a preparatory drawing for a lithograph (shown at right) in an obscure series of prints illustrating Goethe’s play Götz von Berlichingen, first published in German in 1773. Under house arrest on the orders of Emperor Maximilien I, the noble mercenary soldier Götz is shown writing his memoirs in the company of his wife, Elizabeth. In the lithograph, the young, robust Romantic hero has noticeably aged. The dating of this drawing is ambiguous since Delacroix painted the same subject in 1849. It is also possible that the drawing was a study for the painting of the same title, now in a private collection.

Artist

Eugène Delacroix

Date

1840–42 or 1849

Medium

Graphite on beige wove paper

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975