Eugène Delacroix, Horses emerging from the sea, 1860 by Atelier Liesjes

About "Eugène Delacroix, Horses emerging from the sea, 1860"

by Atelier Liesjes

About the artwork

Horses emerging from the sea, which Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix painted in the last years of his life, is one of many canvases inspired by his trips to North Africa. This exotic trip left an indelible impression on the young Delacroix, and the numerous sketches he made during the excursion provided a rich source of motifs from which he drew throughout his career. However, Delacroix claimed that he created the most successful of these scenes late in his life: 'I did not want to do anything during my African journey that was reasonable until the time when I had forgotten the small details sufficiently to remember in my paintings only things the striking and poetic aspects. Duncan Phillips explained: 'Delacroix is a perfect example of controlled energy in painting, that dynamism of curvilinear design that keeps a disciplined mind in check and balanced and classically poised, like those magnificent horses of his leaping out of the sea.'

Two horses run from the sea to the beach along the shoreline. One horse is being ridden by a rider and the other reluctantly. in the background, light shines through the clouds.

Ferdinand Victor Eugene Delacroix (Charenton-Saint Maurice, France, 26 April 1798 - Paris, 13 August 1863) is considered the most important French painter of Romanticism (hence he is sometimes called "Le prince des romantiques"). He has also been called a "literary painter".