39. Félix Bracquemond (1833-1914) after
Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)

Entrée des Croisés à Constantinople (The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople)

(click on image to print)
Entrée des Croisés

Entrée des Croisés à Constantinople (The Entry of the Crusaders into Constantinople)

Etching, 1889, 157 x 178 mm., Béraldi 792, B. N. Inv. N.D. Superb impression of an undescribed first state before letters on thin, vellum-like wove paper with full margins, signed in pencil. According to Béraldi, this small plate was made for a book on the Paris Exposition of 1889, at which the original painting was presumably exhibited (although it was painted in 1840 and shown in the Salon the following year). But one must assume that the etching was more than a commercial job for Bracquemond because in his own writings he cites the painting as Delacroix's masterpiece. The print may be on a small scale, but it is masterfully done.