Basket of Flowers by Delacroix in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, May 2011

Basket of Flowers

Artist: Eugène Delacroix (French, Charenton-Saint-Maurice 1798–1863 Paris)

Date: 1848–49

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 42 1/4 x 56 in. (107.3 x 142.2 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Bequest of Miss Adelaide Milton de Groot (1876–1967), 1967

Accession Number: 67.187.60

Gallery Label:

Given the social and political unrest in post-revolutionary Paris, Delacroix retreated to his country house, Champrosay, in September 1848. There he undertook a series of flower paintings, intended for the Salon of 1849, that he hoped would capture the variety and profusion of garden flowers. Because of the possibility of frost, he worked quickly and produced five canvases. Of these, only two satisfied him sufficiently to be included in the Salon: the present work and "Fruit on a Pedestal" (Philadelphia Museum of Art).

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/436175