Christ On The Cross

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.

Delacroix painted hundreds of religious works in his lifetime and had a strong interest in Christianity. He had many commissions for religious paintings, including pieces for the Saints-Anges chapel of Saint-Sulpice in Paris. His religious paintings and style would shift drastically depending on the needs of the commission.

Some of his religious works, such as Christ On the Sea of Galilee, had multiple painted versions. Delacroix's Pietà, a painting of the Virgin Mary mourning Christ after his death, was eventually redone by Vincent Van Gogh.

Delacroix depicts a moment from the Crucifixion, recounted in the Gospel of John (19: 25–30), when Christ speaks to his mother, the Virgin Mary, and one of his disciples, John, just before he dies. Christ’s mother, dressed in blue and yellow robes, collapses into the arms of Mary Cleophas and John. At the foot of the cross, Mary Magdalene prays as she looks up at Christ. Unusually, Delacroix also includes Judas Iscariot in the lower right corner.

Delacroix places us among the group at the foot of the Cross, as we too look up at Christ’s body. The use of colour is especially powerful as the greenish-grey pallor of Christ’s body is echoed by the greys and pinkish-browns of the stormy sky. The agitated brushwork combines expressive energy with the immediacy of a sketch.