Studies of 12 Greek and Roman Coins by Delacroix in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2019

Studies of Twelve Greek and Roman Coins
1825


Object Details

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

Date: 1825

Medium: Lithograph; second state of four

Dimensions: Image: 9 5/16 in. × 12 in. (23.6 × 30.5 cm)
Sheet: 11 5/8 × 15 7/16 in. (29.6 × 39.2 cm)

Classification: Prints

Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1931

Accession Number: 31.77.24


Delacroix developed his style of modeling by studying Greek and Roman coins in the collections of his friends Louis Auguste Schwiter and P. L. J. Casimir, duc de Blacas. His "système des oeufs" or "egg system," as his assistant, De Planet, called it, involved constructing with ovoid shapes to emphasize mass rather than line.


Text from: www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/336618