Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798-1863). Mother and child reading (The Education of the Virgin). Pencil on laid paper. 4-7/...

Description

Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798-1863)
Mother and child reading (The Education of the Virgin)
Pencil on laid paper
4-7/8 x 3-7/8 inches (12.4 x 9.8 cm) (sheet)
Artist's studio stamp lower right: E.D.

Property from the William A. Glaser Collection

PROVENANCE:
Sotheby Parke-Bernet, New York, June 12, 1982, lot 202;
Acquired by the present owner from the above.

Shortly after purchasing the present drawing at Sotheby's in 1982, William Glaser corresponded with art historian Professor Lee Johnson about it. In a letter dated July 2, 1982, Professor Johnson noted that Sotheby's had consulted him about the sheet before the sale, and he had proposed a date in the 1840s, connecting it with Delacroix's The Education of the Virgin, painted for George Sand in 1842. He observed that the present work was not a direct study for the painting but rather a sketch exploring a general compositional idea of a mother reading to a child, noting that at least one other contemporary drawing of this type by the artist existed. Delacroix eventually decided to translate the motif into subjects of the Virgin and Saint Anne. Additionally, Glaser consulted Joseph Rishel, Curator of European Painting and Sculpture at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. At the time, Rishel was putting together an exhibition of Delacroix's late work (1848-1863) from which the present lot was excluded due to its earlier date, which Rishel agreed was before 1848, in a letter dated November 19, 1997.


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