Provenance
Estate of the artist [Lugt suppl. 838a]. Sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, February 22-27,1864, lot 636 or 637. (Emmanuel?) Pontremoli (died 1956) [according to Paris 1930]. Pierre Geismar, Paris [Lugt Suppl. 2078a]; sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, November 15, 1928, lot 11. Georges Aubry (died 1950), by June 1930 [Paris 1930]; sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, March 11, 1933, lot 40, to Lippmann [according to annotated sales catalogue]. Winslow Ames (died 1990), New London, Conn. [according to Joachim 1979]. Lt. Comdr. John S. Thatcher, Washington D.C., by October 1944 [New York 1944] Sold by Durlacher Brothers, New York, to the Art Institute, 1962.
Accession Number
14403
Medium
Pen and sepia ink on buff paper
Dimensions
21.7 × 32.4 cm (8 9/16 × 12 13/16 in.)
Classification
pen and ink drawings
Credit Line
Worcester Sketch Fund
Background & Context
Background Story
Eugène Delacroix's "Study of Arms and Legs of Christ Crucified" (c. 1850) is a pen and sepia ink drawing on buff paper, a focused anatomical study for a Crucifixion scene. The subject of the Crucifixion was one that Delacroix returned to throughout his career, most notably in his monumental "Christ on the Cross" for the Church of Saint-Sulpice and in his paintings for the Palais Bourbon chapel. This study concentrates on the arms and legs of Christ, the parts of the body that bear the physical evidence of the Crucifixion—the wounds in the hands and feet, the tension of the muscles under the weight of the body. The pen and sepia ink technique is precise and controlled, the lines building form through careful hatching. The buff paper provides a warm ground. This study demonstrates Delacroix's commitment to anatomical accuracy even in his most spiritually elevated subjects. The careful study of the body's structure was, for Delacroix, the foundation upon which the expression of suffering and transcendence could be built.
Cultural Impact
Delacroix's anatomical studies for religious subjects demonstrate the synthesis of scientific observation and spiritual expression that characterized the best of 19th-century French religious painting.
Why It Matters
This focused study of Christ's arms and legs shows Delacroix's commitment to anatomical truth in the service of spiritual expression, the precise ink lines recording the physical reality of suffering as the foundation for transcendent art.
