DELACROIX, Eugène
(b. 1798, Charenton-Saint-Maurice, d. 1863, Paris)

The Sea from the Heights of Dieppe

1852
Oil on cardboard mounted on wood, 35 x 51 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

As an exponent of the "purest classicism" who sought to emulate the great masters, Delacroix owed it to himself to be able to paint flowers and landscape, even if the themes that he generally espoused were more ambitious. Like the Impressionists, Delacroix painted at his leisure the endlessly varying spectacle of daylight; skyscapes, setting suns, and the nocturnal scenes inspired by the forest of Senart and the countryside around Champrosay. But it is The Sea from the Heights of Dieppe, that most clearly demonstrates Delacroix's importance for the Impressionists. Whether or not it was painted in situ, the rapidity of the brush strokes prefigures the rapid notations of the open-air school.