Rocky Coast with a Shipwreck(Eugène Delacroix)
Shipwreck on the coast
Signed and dated Eug Delacroix 1862 (lower right)
Oil on canvas
15 ¼ x 18 3/8 in. (38.8 x 46.7 cm.)
PROVENANCE: Victor Chocquet (by 1864).
Thence by descent to his widow, Marie Chocquet (by 1891); her posthumous sale, Galerie Georges Petit, 1 July 1899, lot 47 (as Le naufrage).
Paul Durand Ruel (no. 5350 on a label on the reverse), purchased from the above sale (FFr 9,500).
Denys Cochin (by 1916).
Boner, Berlin (by 1930).
Acquired by the family of the present owner by 1956, and thence by descent.
EXHIBITED: Paris, Société Nationale des Beaux Arts (Boulevard des Italiens), Oeuvres d’Eugene Delacroix, 13 August 1864, no. 113.
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Eugene Delacroix. Centaire du Romantisme, June July 1930, no. 198 (illustrated p. 100).
Venice, XXVIII Biennale Internazionale d’Arte di Venezia, June-September 1956, no. 4 (as Naufragio presso la costa on a label on the reverse).
Paris, Petit Palais, Exposition de Géricault à Matisse, chefs d’oeuvre françois des collections suisses, March-May 1959, no. 49 (as Naufrage à la cote on a label on the reverse).
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Eugene Delacroix. Centaire du Romantisme. May-September 1963, no. 523.
Berne, Kunstmuseum, Ausstellung Delacroix, 16 November 1963- 19 January 1964, no. 91 (illustrated) (on a label on the reverse). Bremen, Kunsthalle, Ausstellung Eugene Delacroix, 23 February- 26 April 1964, no. 87 (illustrated) (on a label on the reverse). Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy, An Exhibition of Paintings, Drawings and Lithographs sponsored by the Edinburgh Festival Society and arranged by the Arts Council of Great Britain in Association with the Royal Scottish Academy, 15 August-13 September 1964, no. 76;
this exhibition later travelled to London.
LITERATURE: A. Robaut, E. Chesneau and F. Calmettes, L’Oeuvre complet de Eugene Delacroix, peintures, dessins, gravures, lithogrophies, Paris, 1885, no. 1444, p. 387 (with wrong dimensions, 46 x 54 cm. frequently followed in later literature).
E. Moreau Nelaton, Delacroix raconté par lui meme, vol. II, Paris, 1916 (illustrated fig. 426).
J. Meier Graefe, Eugene Delacroix, Beitrage zu einer Analyse, Munich, 1922 (illustrated p. 226).
R. Escholier, Delacroix, peintre, graveur, ecrivan, vol. III, Paris, 1926-9, no. 256 (illustrated p. 259).
L. Johnson, ‘Delacroix at the Biennale’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. XCVIII, 1956, p. 330 (illustrated fig. 50).
M. Sérullaz, Memorial de l’Exposition Eugene Delacroix oganisée au Musée du Louvre à l’occasion du Centenaire de la Mort de l’Artiste, Paris, 1963 (illustrated no. 527).
R. Huyghe, Delacroix, London, 1963, p. 72 (illustrated fig. 6).
R. Huyghe, Delacroix ou le combat solitaire, Paris, 1964, p. 490 (illustrated pl. 345).
J. Rewald, ‘Choquet and Cezanne’, Gazette des Beaux Arts, LXXIV, 1969, pp. 77 & 79.
F.Trapp, The Attainment of Delacroix, Baltimore and London, 1971, p. 18, no. 32.
L. Johnson, The Paintings of Eugene Delacroix, A Critical Catalogue, 1832-1863, vol. III, Oxford, 1986, p. 257, no. 490 (illustrated vol. IV, pl. 289).
Alfred Robaut and later authors have pointed out that this marine view was not painted from nature, as Delacroix does not appear to have visited the seashore in 1862 (L. Johnson, op. cit., 1986, p. 257). Professor Johnson does, however, note the influence of his many studies made on the coast of Normandy in the 1850s. Maurice Aroma has added the interesting suggestion that it may also be a reminiscence of the grottoes of Hercules, near Tangier (Sérullaz, op. cit., no. 527). The fact that the shipwrecked man on the left in the foreground is apparently wearing Arab dress suggests that Delacroix wished to evoke the North African coast, which he first visited in 1832, and an association in his mind with Hercules may have led him to use a pose for the naked shipwrecked figure next to the clothed one very similar to that of Diomedes in his Hercules feeds Diomedes to his Mares (Johnson 312).
Shipwreck on the coast, was acquired by the collector Victor Chocquet (1821-1891), probably shortly after it was painted, and was included in the highly publicised auctions which followed the death of his widow in 1899. Chocquet was one of Delacroix’s great admirers and assembled a collection of his paintings by the time he was married in 1857. Indeed, he wrote to Delacroix in 1862 in the hope that he would accept a commission for a portrait of Madame Chocquet, but the artist declined because eye trouble had caused him to give up portraiture altogether. Chocquet, however, did acquire an Annunciation by Delacroix for FFr600 at the Vente Blanc of April 7, 1862. Two years later, Chocquet attended the auction sale of the contents of Delacroix’s studio, and bought an oil painting, Bouquet of Flowers (no. 92 for FFr800) as well as a watercolour, Mars-el-Kebir (no. 574 for FFr125).
Victor Chocquet is perhaps best known as one of the earliest collectors of the Impressionists. John Rewald, described him as one of the most engaging personalities among the small group of supporters that gathered around the Impressionists in the early years of their struggle for recognition (J. Rewald, Studies in Impressionism, London, 1985, p. 121). Like other early collectors of the Impressionists, Chocquet’s love of Delacroix attuned him to the colour and style of the ‘new painting’. Chocquet is said to have discovered in Renoir’s work certain affinities with Delacroix which encouraged him to commission the artist to paint a portrait of his wife. Chocquet became a close friend of Renoir’s and subsequently Cezanne, and Monet and assembled an important collection of their paintings. In this context the link between Delacroix and the Impressionists is crucial to the evolution of the collecting tastes of men like Chocquet and the acceptance of Impressionism as a new style.
On his death in 1891, Chocquet’s collection, which included seven paintings and twenty five watercolours by Delacroix, passed to his widow. Marie Chocquet died in Spring 1899 and in the absence of a direct heir, the entire estate was sold by auction. On June 1, 1899, Camille Pissarro wrote to his son Lucien in London: ‘A great artistic event is in view: pére Chocquet having died, as well as his widow, his collection is going to be dispersed at auction’ (ibid p. 162).
The auction created considerable public interest. The reporter for the Paris New York Herald, gave special mention to Shipwreck on the coast: ‘Among the twenty three pictures by Eugene Delacroix, which I have just seen, the best are No. 45, L’Annonciatio, No. 47, Le Naufrage (the present work), and No. 50, portrait of women and interior’. The total of the first session was FFr297,860. The present work was purchased by the dealer Paul Durand Ruel for FFr9,500 surpassing the price for Monets Haystack, which fetched FFr9,000 in the same sale.
Victor Choquet by 1864
Thence by descent until 1899
Durand Ruel
Denys Cochin by 1916
Boner, Berlin by 1930
Private collection Switzerland by 1956 and thence by descent
LITERATURE: A. Robaut, E. Chesneau and F. Calmettes, L’Oeuvre complet de Eugene Delacroix, peintures, dessins, gravures, lithogrophies, Paris, 1885, no. 1444, p. 387 (with wrong dimensions, 46 x 54 cm. frequently followed in later literature).
E. Moreau Nelaton, Delacroix raconté par lui meme, vol. II, Paris, 1916 (illustrated fig. 426).
J. Meier Graefe, Eugene Delacroix, Beitrage zu einer Analyse, Munich, 1922 (illustrated p. 226).
R. Escholier, Delacroix, peintre, graveur, ecrivan, vol. III, Paris, 1926-9, no. 256 (illustrated p. 259).
L. Johnson, ‘Delacroix at the Biennale’, The Burlington Magazine, vol. XCVIII, 1956, p. 330 (illustrated fig. 50).
M. Sérullaz, Memorial de l’Exposition Eugene Delacroix oganisée au Musée du Louvre à l’occasion du Centenaire de la Mort de l’Artiste, Paris, 1963 (illustrated no. 527).
R. Huyghe, Delacroix, London, 1963, p. 72 (illustrated fig. 6).
R. Huyghe, Delacroix ou le combat solitaire, Paris, 1964, p. 490 (illustrated pl. 345).
J. Rewald, ‘Choquet and Cezanne’, Gazette des Beaux Arts, LXXIV, 1969, pp. 77 & 79.
F.Trapp, The Attainment of Delacroix, Baltimore and London, 1971, p. 18, no. 32.
L. Johnson, The Paintings of Eugene Delacroix, A Critical Catalogue, 1832-1863, vol. III, Oxford, 1986, p. 257, no. 490 (illustrated vol. IV, pl. 289).
Paris, Société Nationale des Beaux Arts (Boulevard des Italiens), Oeuvres d’Eugene Delacroix, 13 August 1864, no. 113.
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Eugene Delacroix. Centaire du Romantisme, June July 1930, no. 198 (illustrated p. 100).
Venice, XXVIII B