Galleries in Paris

The Musée National Eugène Delacroix occupies the painter’s apartment as well as his studio, located in his private garden.

The Société des Amis d’Eugène Delacroix initially rented the studio, then the apartment and the studio. This Société, recognized as working in the public interest in 1934, set as its goal to « guarantee the existence and maintenance » of the buildings and to promote Delacroix’s work. Starting in 1932, it organized a series of exhibitions, concerts, and conferences. When the building was put up for sale in 1952, the Société, concerned with completing its assigned task, sold its collection to the national museums. With the earnings, it was able to acquire the apartment, the studio, and the small garden. It donated all the property to the French government in 1954, with the agreement that a museum would be created.

The museum’s collection contains works from nearly every phase of Delacroix’s career, covering many of his themes. Magdalene in the Desert, exhibited at the 1845 Salon and one of the museum’s major paintings, is a most unusual religious composition, as compared to Education of the Virgin, painted in Nohant in 1842. The museum also boasts the artist’s only three attempts at fresco, which were done in Valmont (1834).