"Delacroix" - Museum Lecture at Bernardsville Library

Vivian Gordon, art historian and long-time lecturer in the Education Department at The Metropolitan Museum, will present an illustrated talk at Bernardsville Public Library on Tuesday, October 9 at 7:30 pm about "Delacroix," the historic exhibition now on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

One of the most exciting French artists of the 19th century, Eugène Delacroix stands out for work done on his own terms filled with vibrant color, energy and drama. He once wrote “I dislike reasonable painting,” and he was inspired by an astonishing variety of subjects. This talk by Vivian Gordon coincides with “a historic event”— the first comprehensive retrospective devoted to this amazing artist ever held in North America. It is on view at The Metropolitan Museum until January 6.

Delacroix (1798–1863) was one of the greatest creative figures of the nineteenth century. Coming of age after the fall of Napoleon, he reconnected the present to the past on his own terms. Delacroix produced an extraordinarily vibrant body of work, setting into motion a cascade of innovations that changed the course of art.

The exhibition, a joint project with the Musée du Louvre, illuminates Delacroix's restless imagination through more than 150 paintings, drawings, prints, and manuscripts—many never before seen in the United States. It unfolds chronologically, encompassing the rich variety of themes that preoccupied the artist during his more than four decades of activity, including literature, history, religion, animals, and nature. Through rarely seen graphic art displayed alongside such iconic paintings as “Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi” (1826), “The Battle of Nancy” (1831), “Women of Algiers in Their Apartment” (1834), and “Medea about to Kill Her Children” (1838), this exhibition explores an artist whose protean genius set the bar for virtually all other French painters.

There is no charge to attend the Library program, but advance sign-up is requested. Register online at www.bernardsvillelibrary.org and follow the link from Adult Programs, or call the library at 908-766-0118 to sign up.