Delacroix recorded numerous visits to the zoo and the natural history museum at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, where he could sketch lions from life and carefully study taxidermied specimens. He described the experience as a revitalizing one that encouraged his attention to nature: "How necessary it is to . . . stick one’s head out of doors and try to read from creation, which has nothing in common with cities and the works of man." This sheet, inscribed February 12, likely dates from 1829; it comes from a now disbound sketchbook that otherwise contained drawings from the artist's 1828 visit to Tours in the Loire Valley.
This artwork is meant to be viewed from right to left. Scroll left to view more.
Folio 1
Folio 2
Folio 3
Folio 4
Folio 5
Folio 6
Folio 6
Folio 7
Folio 8
Folio 9
Folio 10
Folio 10
Folio 11
Folio 12
Folio 13
Folio 13
Folio 14
Folio 15
Folio 16
Folio 16
Folio 17
Folio 18
Folio 19
Folio 19
Folio 20
Folio 21
Folio 22
Folio 22
Folio 23
Folio 23
Folio 24
Folio 24
Folio 25
Folio 26
Folio 26
Folio 27
Folio 27
Folio 28
Folio 29
Folio 30
Folio 30
Folio 31
Folio 31
Folio 32
Folio 32
Folio 33
Folio 33
Folio 34
Folio 35
Folio 35
Folio 36
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Sketchbook with views of Tours, France and its environs
Dimensions:36 folios, each sheet: 4 15/16 x 7 11/16 in. (12.5 x 19.5 cm)
Classifications:Drawings, Sketchbooks
Credit Line:Gift of Alexander and Gregoire Tarnopol, 1969
Accession Number:69.165.2
Inscription: On the inner covers are notes in Delacroix's hand in graphite and brown ink: Librairie de Pichonet Didier / quai des Augustins no. 47 / Oeuvres posthumes et inédites de Me Guizot / Conseils de morale ou essai sur l'homme, / les moeurs, les caractères, les femmes, l'éducation / Pompe funèbre du duc Charles III / de Lorraine par DelaRuelle / Entrée du Henry 2 a Nancy / par le même / le Vade mecum.. livre de médecine / chez le docteur d [crossed out] Chez Persan libr. rue du coq no. 11. / Charon: de la sagesse, liv. I. Chap. XLII. Sur le mariage / Pompe funebre du duc Charles de Lorraine et / autres gravures de Laruelle, graveur Lorrain / Me Toly rue neuve St. Eustache no. 36 / pour Charles le Téméraire / Le livre des echecs amoureux. dedié à Louis [illegible word].
The artist's estate sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, Paris, February 17-29, 1864, probably part of no. 664; Alexander Tarnopoland his brother Grégoire Tarnopol, New York (until 1969)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Classicism and Romanticism. French Drawings and Prints," September 15–November 1, 1970.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings Recently Acquired, 1969–1971," January 18–April 16, 1972.
Paris. Cabinet des dessins, Musée du Louvre. "Dessins français du Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York de David à Picasso," October 25, 1973–January 7, 1974.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Nineteenth Century French Drawings and Prints," June 23–August 23, 1981.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Landscapes by French Artists, 1780–1880," November 17, 1987–February 14, 1988.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863): Paintings, Drawings, and Prints from North American Collections," April 10–June 16, 1991.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Drawings and Prints: Selections from the Permanent Collection," February 26–May 5, 1996.
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours. "Delacroix en Touraine," May 15, 1998–July 31, 1998.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Delacroix," September 17, 2018–January 6, 2019.
MMA 1991.72
Jacob Bean "One Hundredth Annual Report of the Trustees for the Fiscal Year 1969-1970, Reports of the Departments: Drawings." in The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, n.s. vol. 29, no. 2, New York, October 1970, pp. 70, 71.
Maurice Sérullaz Musée du Louvre, Cabinet des Dessins, Inventaire Général des Dessins École Française, Dessins d'Eugène Delacroix, 1798-1863. 2 vols., Paris, 1984, Mentioned under numbers 1148, 1149, 1150, pp. 423, 422 (re, ill.
Jacques Olivier Bouffier, The Metropolitan Museum of Art "The Tours Sketchbook of Eugène Delacroix." MMA Journal. vol. 29, New York, 1994, pp. 135-150, ill.
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours, Philipe Le Leyzour, Sophie Join-Lambert Delacroix en Touraine. Exh. cat., Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours, May 16-July 31, 1998. Bordeaux, 1998.
Sébastien Allard, Côme Fabre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Delacroix. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2018, cat. no. 60, pp. 42-43, 47, and 283, ill.
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's collection of drawings and prints—one of the most comprehensive and distinguished of its kind in the world—began with a gift of 670 works from Cornelius Vanderbilt, a Museum trustee, in 1880.