Theatrical Troupe on the Road

Eugène Delacroix

1818 · Pen and brown ink, watercolor, over graphite · Drawings and Prints

Among the earliest drawings Delacroix made in preparation for works that entered the public sphere are satirical cartoons. Here, he assembles a motley crew of players to criticize the prevailing academic classicism of the theater. The wagon is stuffed with scenery, including a classical column and a board painted with a Greco-Roman god. A Pierrot type leads the group but looks back toward an actor dressed as a Roman soldier rather foolishly riding one of the carthorses. Delacroix’s use of watercolor indicates that he anticipated the lithograph based on this drawing would be hand-tinted, as was common practice with the immensely popular English caricatures he so admired.

Artist

Eugène Delacroix

Date

1818

Medium

Pen and brown ink, watercolor, over graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Purchase, Karen B. Cohen Gift, 2015