La Pietà, from "L'Illustration"

Eugène Delacroix|Alexandre Pothey

August 29, 1863 · Wood engraving · Drawings and Prints

Published just two weeks after the death of Delacroix, this print is described as the artist's "last drawing on wood." Customarily, to make a wood engraving, an artist would supply a drawing on paper to be translated by another hand onto the wood block, before being engraved by yet another practitioner. By drawing directly onto the wood himself, Delacroix believed the medium could serve as an outlet for the direct expression of his thought. This composition corresponds more closely with Delacroix's first oil sketch (private collection) for his Pietà than the final mural executed in Saint-Denys-du-Saint-Sacrement, which does not include the angels and reverses the figural group.

Artist

Eugène Delacroix|Alexandre Pothey

Date

August 29, 1863

Medium

Wood engraving

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

Gift of Donato Esposito, 2019