Description of the attraction
The National Museum of Eugene Delacroix occupies the apartment in which the artist lived in the last years of his life, and his studio, located in the garden adjacent to the house. The artist moved here in 1867 to work without hindrance on the murals of the nearby church of Saint-Sulpice. He was seriously ill and was eager to complete the work on the frescoes.
Delacroix lived a stormy, eventful life. He was believed to be the illegitimate son of Napoleonic Foreign Minister Talleyrand. The boy's parents died early, at the age of sixteen the young man was left on his own. Thinking about his future, he chose painting and ten years later achieved fame in this field, exhibiting the painting "The Massacre in Chios". After the July Uprising of 1830, he painted the famous "Freedom Leading the People" - the picture caused a sensation, the government bought it, but immediately ordered it to be removed from the public's eyes. In Russia, the canvas is known as "Freedom on the Barricades". It is now on display at the Louvre.
Then there were the years of wandering around the Maghreb countries. Upon returning to France - official orders for the Bourbon and Luxembourg palaces, the Louvre. The last twelve years of his life, Delacroix dedicated the church of Saint-Sulpice, where he created in the encaustic technique huge frescoes "The Battle of Jacob with the Angel", "Saint Michael Slaying the Demon" and "The Expulsion of the Robber Heliodorus from the Temple of Jerusalem." Delacroix was very saddened that these works went virtually unnoticed.
Eugene Delacroix died in 1863 in his home. Both the apartment and the workshop passed into private hands. In 1929, the house was about to be demolished in order to build garages. The monument's rescue committee was headed by artists Maurice Denis and Paul Signac. As a result, Delacroix's studio was declared a national cultural monument. Today you can see the master's original easel, two wooden drawing tables, sketches, drawings and prints, a narrow bed on which the artist spent the last hours of his life.
Connoisseurs of the artist's creativity can also see the plastic and expressive monument of Delacroix by the sculptor Aimé-Jules Daloux in the Luxembourg Gardens. The monument was installed here in 1890.
