The Wounded Goetz Cared for by the Bohemians

Eugène Delacroix

Lithograph in black with scraping on stone, on thin off-white paper laid down on thick ivory wove paper (chine collé)

Art Institute of Chicago

This lithograph by Eugène Delacroix depicts a scene from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's drama 'Goetz von Berlichingen,' in which the wounded medieval knight Goetz is received and tended to by Bohemians (gypsies), whose loyalty to him was a testament to his noble reputation. Delacroix, the preeminent figure of French Romanticism, was drawn to Goethe's literary works as rich sources of dramatic, emotionally charged imagery, and he developed a sustained series of seven lithographs based on the play. The work is rendered with the expressive, dynamic quality characteristic of Delacroix's graphic output, capturing the tension and humanity of the scene with bold contrasts of light and shadow. Goethe himself praised Delacroix's interpretations of scenes from his plays, lending the series considerable cultural prestige across both France and Germany.