Delacroix in North Africa - Essay Example

Traveling around Algeria and Morocco (after France conquered the former) with the diplomatic mission, the painter carefully “documented” everything he saw. Capturing the images of exotic lands, Delacroix created numerous sketches, drawings, and watercolors. In these images, the painter sought to depict silhouettes, lifestyle, garments, and manners. Eventually, impressions that Delacroix on this trip, served as a rich source of inspiration for his further works.

The excerpts from his journal remind me of paintings, too. The artist described rather briefly the events that took place during the journey: the mission’s moving through the country, the Jewish wedding, the audience at the emperors, and others. In addition, there are mentions of exotic Eastern traditions and customs, like that of the Moors described in the note from March 11. While reading his journal, the painting enthusiast would be inevitably enraptured by the aesthetics of Eugene Delacroix's notes. The genuine artistic nature is seen through the journal notes – the soul of a painter is reflected virtually in every sentence: instead of granting much attention to the events – as ordinary people do – Delacroix was mostly interested in details. It is not the ritual of Jewish wedding celebration that he depicted in his notes, but the surroundings and people. He described clothing, face traits, and other details that probably wouldn’t be even mentioned in a journal of an ordinary person: “pretty Jewish woman; vest, sleeves, gold, and amaranth. She is silhouetted halfway against the door, halfway against the wall.” This description of a Jewish woman present at the celebration of the wedding illustrates a peculiar artistic approach – the author doesn’t pamper the reader with exquisitely built complex sentences, this is more similar to operational notes. However, the journal notes remind of paintings, unfolding the scene, compositions, colors, textures, the position of subjects, and even peculiarities of lighting. It is difficult to overlook how the painter described colors: “more nearly a brown green”, brown-green amaranth”, “red skullcap, white drapery, black dress”, “very dark toward the belt, red vest, brown ornaments, blue behind his neck” etc. Delacroix attaches enormous importance to the properties of draperies, text, rues, and colors. As the result, reading these notes, one can imagine the painting that was to arise from these written “sketches”. And there is no doubt that many of these details recorded by the painter were eventually used in Delacroix’s great paintings. For example, the scene of fighting horses, overlooked on January 29, “was admirable for a painting”, and later the painting “Arabian Horses Fighting in a Stable” saw the world.

The heritage of Delacroix reflects a kind of artistic “expansion” eastwards, with the painter getting to know and appreciating the foreign culture. After dulling the mosaicism bourgeois France, the painter delved into the atmosphere of love of freedom, brightness, ness, and abundance of life. His sketches, paintings, and journal notes mirror pure admiration of the beauty and aesthetics of life's thesis unusual and exotic people.