Eugene Delacroix: Selected Letters, 1813-1863 by Eugène Delacroix

Selected Letters contains the most representative and informative selection available of the correspondence of Eugene Delacroix, the foremost visual artist of the French Romantic movement. As edited by Jean Stewart, they are divided into four sections: the first letters were written in Delacroix's teens and early twenties, and show the essential loneliness that would dominate his life; the second, stretching to the age of 35, detail the travels that indelibly marked him, such as his visit to England (for which these letters are the only source of information) and his seminal journey to North Africa; the third group dates from his return to France in 1833, telling of his grand commissions and of his intimate friendships with George Sand and Mme. de Forget, the only woman with whom he had a lasting relationship; and last are the letters from his final years, a time of official acceptance and relations with such notable figures as Stendhal and Merimee. Intelligently edited and fluently translated, these Selected Letter bring to life, in his own words, one of the greatest artistic geniuses of the 19th century.