Eugène DELACROIX - Autograph manuscript – Salon de la Paix.

Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)

Autograph manuscript – Salon de la Paix.

Three pages in-8°. Collector's stamp.

Slnd. [Paris. Spring 1854]

, carried on clouds, brings back abundance and the procession of muses . 

Terrific manuscript by Eugène Delacroix explaining the iconographic and symbolic unfolding of a work that has now disappeared: the Salon de la Paix at the Hôtel de Ville in Paris.

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Peace Fair

The grieving Earth raises its eyes to the sky to obtain an end to its misfortunes. She is surrounded by ruins : near her , a his foot. Friends, relatives, meet and kiss other ; we collect sad victims while weeping.

Peace, carried on clouds, brings back abundance and the procession of the muses. Ceres repels the frightful Mars and the furies : discord flees roaring and plunges back into the abyss , while Jupiter, from the top of his throne of clouds, still turns menacingly towards the evil deities enemies of rest .

Eleven subjects from the life of Hercules . We followed the destroyer of the monsters and the avenger of the oppressed – we followed in the order of the paintings, rather the convenience of the lines and the effect than the chronological order .

1° Hercules, exposed after his birth, is taken in by Juno and Minerva. The latter holds him in her arms and presents him to Juno who prepares to breastfeed him.

2° Hercules, having raised his famous columns at the limits of the world, rests from his work. The sun at the end of its career plunges back into the sea.

3° He brings Alceste back from hell and returns her to A dmete, her husband.

4° He kills the Centaur.

5° He chains Nereus, god of the sea, to force him to reveal the future to him.

6° He seizes the harness of Hippolyte, queen of the Amazons.

7° He suffocates Antaeus . The mother earth of this titan tries in vain to help him.

8° He delivers Hesione, daughter of Laomedon, exposed to be devoured by a sea monster.

9° He Nemean lion with his hands to take its skin.

10° Young Hercules still between vice and pleasure.

11° He brings back on his shoulders and alive the Erymanthian boar that he had caught on the run. »

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This manuscript by Eugène Delacroix is ​​rich in valuable lessons regarding the design of the decor of the Salon de la Paix, commissioned from the painter in December 1851, for the Paris City Hall. Executed between 1852 and 1854, the artist's paintings were destroyed by the fires of the Commune on May 24, 1871. Today we only know a few sketches and descriptions from the period, such as that issued by the creator himself, in this manuscript.

It is interesting to note that this text – with many variations – was published by Gustave Planche in the Revue des Deux Mondes (April 15, 1854 – pp. 305-321). An art critic who had long been favorable to Romanticism and to Delacroix in particular, Planche regularly commented on the painter's works, public commissions and submissions to the Salon.

It is therefore very likely that these handwritten notes from Delacroix were intended for him, to guide him in the writing of his article and to enlighten him on the symbolic will of the artist. The correspondence between Delacroix and Planche is completely proven. We find this text, reworked, in Notice sur l'Hôtel de Ville de Paris by A. Ferrier, published in 1855 (p.80-81).

Finally, we will note the amusing slip of Delacroix for whom Hercules hesitates between Vice and Voluptuousness , and not as History would have it, between vice and virtue.

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