Medea

Medea crouches at the mouth of a cave, clutching her two sons, a dagger in her hand. Delacroix thought about this scene for twenty years before painting it, and it triumphed at the Salon of 1838.

The story behind the painting

The painting came after long reflection. From 1818 Delacroix took up the theme of Medea in his sketchbooks, and his drawings, which run until 1828, moved from the overall composition to the different parts of Medea's body and finally to her face. He began the canvas in 1836 but finished it only in 1838, to show it at the Salon, where it was a great success. Wikidata dates the work 1836, the year it was begun. The French state bought it, showed it for a year at the Musee du Luxembourg and then sent it to the museum in Lille, where it has been since 1839.

What to look for

The canvas is large, 260 by 165 cm. Medea, rejected by Jason, is about to kill their sons Mermeros and Pheres. Every line of the picture converges on her as she holds the children back. The dagger is the only vertical element, set against the round, soft forms of the boys. The light falls on the sorceress's chest and on her children. Look at her face: a cast shadow darkens its upper part, a choice that drew a great deal of criticism. An oil sketch and 31 preparatory drawings are also kept in Lille.

Meaning and intent

The picture was painted at the height of the French Romantic revolution, and its force comes from the clash between love and violence held in a single moment. Medea still clutches her children close, almost protectively, while the blade is already in her hand. By hiding her eyes in shadow, Delacroix leaves her fury and grief to the body, the gesture and the light rather than to an expression. The contrast of the hard, straight dagger with the soft bodies of the children makes the coming act feel unbearable without showing it.

Legacy

The Medea was shown again at the Exposition Universelle of 1855. More than twenty years after it, in 1859, Delacroix painted another version for the collector Bouruet-Aubertot, and in 1862 two smaller replicas, one for the Societe Artesienne des Amis des Arts and one for the banker Emile Pereire, now in the Louvre. Theodore Chasseriau made a small copy, now in the Musee Delacroix, and around 1880 to 1885 Paul Cezanne made a gouache after it, now at the Kunsthaus Zurich. Lithographers and engravers also reproduced it, and in 2001 the Musee Delacroix held an exhibition around the painting.