Arab Riders Crossing the Sebou River

(Eugène Delacroix)

This small but brilliant work is unusual as the figures are dwarfed by the verdant landscape, a notable feature of Delacroix’s Salon painting of 1857, The Banks of the Sebou River with Bathers (see cat. no. 25), which is even more exaggerated here. The painting was recorded by Silvestre in his 1855 partial listing of Delacroix’s existing works (the only catalogue of the artist’s œuvre executed during his lifetime), but undated; stylistically it seems to date from only a few years earlier. We know from the artist’s diary entries of the 11th and 12th of March, 1832, that he crossed and re-crossed the river Sebou, and was considerably impressed with the excitement of the scene, the fast flowing river, the horses tossing their heads, all set against the backdrop of the Atlas mountains. Returning there on April 7th he wrote: ‘Mounted on my horse, forded the Sebou, water strong but pleasant – Crossed the Sebou … After dinner in the beautiful mountains. Descended in a superb valley with many beautiful trees.’[1]

The perspective chosen by the artist is an exceptional one, taken from a point high above the landscape looking down on the panoramic landscape laid out below. The scene is dominated by a large mountain behind which the setting sun spreads a mixture of golden yellow, orange and pinkish light across the evening sky. The hills in the middle ground are still just lit, with splashes of emerald green and dark blue color delicately laid over darker tones. The twisting river, swollen by the melted winter snows, emerges from the lower hills on the right and then turns across the foreground, widening to allow the Arab horsemen descending to ford its shallower waters. Whether Delacroix did this sketch from a memory of this time, or invented it using the many watercolor studies that he completed in sketchbooks on his trip, we cannot be certain. The rich, bold palette is typical of his work in the 1850’s, and Professor Johnson has confirmed this dating. We know from an entry in Delacroix’s journal of November 24th, 1856 that he considered sending this work to the Salon, but evidently decided not to do so as it was never actually exhibited.[2] It remained with the heirs of Piron and is still in the original mid-19th century frame. NOTES

[1] ‘Monté sur mon cheval, côtoyé le Sébou, eau fort agréable. [. . . ] Passage du Sébou. [ . . . ] Entré après déjeuner dans de belles montagnes. Descendu dans une superbe vallée avec beaucoup de très beaux arbres’ (Journal 1. 137, 147).

[2]‘je pourrais mettre au Salon… le Paysage que j’ai donné à Piron’.

Provenance: Given by the artist to M. Piron (his executor) before 1856; M. and Mme. Adrien Colas de Courval (dau of M. Piron), by descent; Arthur Colas de Courval, their son, by descent; by descent thereafter.

Literature: Théophile Silvestre, Histoire des artistes vivants, français étrangers, Etudes d’aprés nature (Delacroix), 1855, p. 82 (as Paysage d’Afrique, troupe dans un gué); A. Piron, Eugène Delacroix, sa vie et ses œuvre, Paris, 1865, p. 110; Alfred Robaut, L’ œuvre complet d’ Eugène Delacroix, Charavay Freres, Paris, 1885, no. 738, p. 198; Lee Johnson, The paintings of Eugène Delacroix, University Printing House, Oxford, 1981, volume III, p. 283, no. L169 (as lost, known only from the Robaut illustration); Vol IV, pl. 309 (reproduction of the Robaut illustration).

Matthiesen Gallery & Stair Sainty Matthiesen, ‘The Gallic Prospect’, 1999