Sketchbook from the Artist's Trip to Germany - Eugène Delacroix (1855–1859)

Sketchbook Artist

Graphite and watercolor on paper

Art Institute of Chicago

This intimate sketchbook, executed in graphite and watercolor on paper, was produced by Eugène Delacroix during a journey to Germany between 1855 and 1859, capturing the observational studies that were central to his working practice as the foremost painter of French Romanticism. Delacroix (1798–1863) was renowned for his expressive use of color, dynamic brushwork, and his insistence on drawing from direct observation during his travels, which fed directly into his large-scale canvases and mural commissions. The sketchbook exemplifies how Delacroix used travel as a means of visual research, filling pages with rapid notations in graphite refined with watercolor washes that document form, atmosphere, and local character. Part of the Clarence Buckingham Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago since 1970, this work is documented in Harold Joachim's foundational study of French drawings and sketchbooks of the nineteenth century.