Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) - Lot 70

Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863) Tigre en arrêt. 1854. Glass plate. 215x190mm. Delteil, Strauber 131. Nice old print. Small tear in lower right corner. Attached: autograph bill in pen and sepia ink on filled sheet, with traces of courier folds ("This Wednesday 20/Mon cher ami, je merai / avec bien du plaisir à votre aimable / invitation pour vendredi / Je vous embrasse / Eug. Delacroix"). Both mounted in a single frame (not examined out of frame). "Delacroix was introduced to this new technique by one of the best teachers of the genre: Charles Desavary, inventor of the cliché-verre in the 1850s with his father-in-law Constant Dutilleux. The artist traces his drawing on a glass plate coated with collodion, and it's the light passing through the glass that fixes the motif on photosensitive paper. Although Delacroix was enthusiastic about the idea, he was soon to be disappointed. He was uncomfortable with the point that delineated the lines. He perceived hatching as a mechanical process that hindered his freedom. In a letter, recounts Christian Rümelin, he spares no words about his difficulties, but also about his desire to move forward in this direction: "I have also seen with great pleasure the proofs of the photographic engraving, although the drawing itself was very bad. [...] But the process is quite ingenious and I very much wish to find some time to make a trial of this kind". (Connaissance des Arts).