''Head of an Old Greek Woman'' is a painting completed in 1824 by the French Romantic artist

Eugène Delacroix Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( , ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.Noon, Patrick, et al., ''Crossing the Channel: Britis ...

.Head of an Old Greek Woman, Eugène Delacroix, French, 1824
.

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

. Retrieved 16 March 2023 It is a study for his large oil painting ''

The Massacre at Chios ''The Massacre at Chios'' (french: Scène des massacres de Scio) is the second major oil painting by the French artist Eugène Delacroix. The work is more than four meters tall, and shows some of the horror of the wartime destruction visited on ...

'' ("Scène des massacres de Scio"); a depiction of the

Chios massacre The Chios massacre (in el, Η σφαγή της Χίου, ) was a catastrophe that resulted to the death, enslavement, and refuging of about four-fifths of the total population of Greeks on the island of Chios by Ottoman troops, during the G ...

which occurred in 1821 during the

Greek War of Independence The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution or the Greek Revolution of 1821, was a successful war of independence by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1829. The Greeks were later assisted by ...

. The final work was completed for that year's Paris

Salon Salon may refer to: Common meanings * Beauty salon, a venue for cosmetic treatments * French term for a drawing room, an architectural space in a home * Salon (gathering), a meeting for learning or enjoyment Arts and entertainment * Salon (P ...

. The final work was heavily influenced by both Spanish influenced and the French artist Théodore Géricault, and shows the woman in full-length seated to the right next to a gruesomely depicted female corspe.Tinterow (2003), p. 477Allard (2018), p.25 Eugene Delacroix - Scenes from Massacre at Chios- detail 1824 Louvre

Eugene Delacroix - Scenes from Massacre at Chios- detail 1824 Louvre

The painting is bust-length and small at × . It was painted from life with oil on canvas or

graphite Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on large ...

. The image is tightly cropped, emphasising her fearful and near weeping gaze. Her black dress, long dark hair, face and neck are rendered using

chiaroscuro Chiaroscuro ( , ; ), in art, is the use of strong contrasts between light and dark, usually bold contrasts affecting a whole composition. It is also a technical term used by artists and art historians for the use of contrasts of light to achi ...

, although the final image is far more colourful. ''Head of a Woman'' is held at the Fine Arts museum of

Orléans Orléans (;"Orleans"
(US) and A near contemporary copy is in the

, New York.

References

Sources

* Allard, Sébastian. ''Delacroix''. Yale University Press, 2018. * Tinterow, Garry. ''Manet/Velazquez: The French Taste for Spanish Painting''.

, 2003. {{DEFAULTSORT:Head of a Woman 1823 paintings Paintings by Eugène Delacroix