Eugene Delacroix Carnet "des Pyrenees", 1845 (2 vls)

Eugene Delacroix, (1798-1863), France's leading Romantic painter, spent the summer of 1845 in Eaux-Bonnes, a little spa on the Atlantic side of the Pyrenees. Struck by the grandiose sight of the mountains incumbent on the Ossau valley, Delacroix reproduced the landscapes - amongst his best - with quick pencil sketches and, in some cases, with watercolours. In the same sketchbook, he drew the traditional costumes of the inhabitants. Finally, upon his return in Paris, alerted by the novelist George Sand, he discovered the Ojibwe tribe. Eleven of its members had been brought to Europe by American painter George Catlin and Delacroix portrayed them on several pages of this carnet in moving sketches. The Carnet des Pyrenees was acquired by the Louvre in 2004 and classified as a "national treasure".