European Painting before 1900, Johnson Collection Interior of a Dominican Convent in Madrid 1831 Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix, French, 1798 - 1863 Oil on canvas * Gallery 299, European Art 1500-1850, second floor W1894-1-2 Purchased with the W. P. Wilstach Fund, 1894 |
LabelThe subject of this painting is from a popular nineteenth-century English novel, Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer, translated into French in 1821. A young man forced into a convent as a child undergoes harrowing trials in order to escape his punitive and corrupt surroundings. Here he is shown being dragged before the bishop of Madrid. The artist depicts a cavernous, vaulted room that is actually based on the interior of the Palace of Justice in Rouen, France. Delacroix's use of this decidedly un-Spanish, secular setting may have been an intentional reference to the oppressive link between civic and religious power, a theme prominent in the novel.* Works in the collection are moved off view for many different reasons. Although gallery locations on the website are updated regularly, there is no guarantee that this object will be on display on the day of your visit. |
