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Two Costume Designs by Eugène Delacroix

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2009

Barry Daniels
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Extract

In the process of concluding my thesis, ‘Alfred de Vigny and the French Romantic Theatre’ (Cornell University, 1973), I had written to France requesting permission to publish the various iconographic material relevant to the productions of Vigny's plays. A note from M. Sangnier was forwarded to me via the Association des Amis d'Alfred de Vigny concerning the existence in M. Sangnier's collection of two costume sketches by Delacroix ascribed to Vigny's La Maréchale d'Ancre. This ascription came as a pleasant surprise to me as there is no mention of Delacroix' association with the production in either his or Vigny's published papers, or in contemporary reviews of the production. A quick check of Delacroix biographies and catalogues confirmed my suspicion that the sketches (Plates I and II) had been heretofore unknown.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Theatre Research International , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , October 1975, pp. 14 - 16
Copyright
Copyright © International Federation for Theatre Research 1975

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References

Notes

1. M. Sangnier's collection consists of Vigny's personal papers and effects which were willed to his god-daughter, Mme Louise Ancelot Lachaud in 1863, and were in turn inherited by her daughter, Mme Sangnier. The handwriting on the sketches, identifying them as the work of Delacroix, is that of Vigny. I would like to thank the present owners, M. and Mme Jean Sangnier for permission to reproduce these sketches.

2. This fact is not surprising. Of the four plays produced by Vigny during the Romantic period, I have discovered only one reference naming a costume designer. That reference appeared in a work published in 1855 describing a production in 1829. Only one of the reviews of Hugo's Amy Robsart mentions that Delacroix was the designer.

3. Notably: Robaut, Alfred, L'Oeuvre complète d'Eugène Delacroix (Paris: Charavay, 1855)Google Scholar; Escholier, Raymond, Delacroix, Peintre, Graveur, Ecrivain (Paris: Floury, 1926–1929)Google Scholar; Sérullaz, Maurice, Mémorial de l'Exposition Eugène Delacroix (Paris: Editions des Musées Nationaux, 1963).Google Scholar

4. See Hoare, Margaret Ann, ‘The Work of Eugène Delacroix inspired by William Shakespeare's Hamlet’. (Master's Thesis, Cornell University, 1961.)Google Scholar

5. See Delacroix' letter to Hugo accompanying the sketches, in Delacroix, Eugène, Correspondance générale (Paris: Plon, 1935), I, 221–2.Google Scholar The article on Delacroix in the Enciclopedia dello Spettacolo (Rome: le Maschere, 1957, IV, 362–3)Google Scholar which reproduces two of the sketches for Amy Robsart (Tav. 5), notes that Delacroix also designed the costumes for his friend Simon, a dancer, in the ballets La Belle au bois dormant (Opéra, 27 04 1829)Google Scholar and Le Diable amoureux (Opéra, 23 09 1840)Google Scholar; but disputes an attribution to Delacroix of the costumes for Cherubini, 's Ali-Baba (Opéra, 22 07 1833).Google Scholar