DELACROIX EUGENE: (1798-1863) French artist of the Romantic school. A.L.S., Eug. Delacroix, two pages, 8vo, n.p., 15th March n.y. (annotated in pencil as 1855), to [Ernest Legouvé] (´Monsieur´), in French. Delacroix commences his congratulatory letter by stating ´Il faut que je vive dans une bien complète réclusion pour avoir ignoré jusqu´à ce moment votre élection. Je viens de l´apprendre au milieu de mon atelier dont je ne sors pas et occupé exclusivement à finir mes tableaux´ (Translation: ´I must have been living in complete seclusion to have been unaware of your election until now. I have only just learnt of it whilst in my studio, from which I never leave and where I am occupied exclusively with finishing my paintings´) and continues to remark ´Je fais compliment à l´académie de son bon goût: votre Médée que j´ai lue et bien lue est une tentative vigoureuse que les académies en général n´accueillent pas facilement. Je suis une petite preuve de cette répugnance à couronner ce qui sort l´ornière classique; je suis bien heureux au moins que ce soit une Médée comme la votre qui ait forcé la barrière et vous ait mis où vous devez être´ (Translation: ´ I commend the Academy on its good taste: your Médée, which I have read—and read thoroughly—is a bold endeavour that academies generally do not readily embrace. I am a small example of this reluctance to honour works that stray from the classical mould; I am, at least, very glad that it is a Médée such as yours that has broken through the barrier and placed you where you ought to be´). With blank integral leaf. Some very light, minor foxing, otherwise VG

Ernest Legouvé (1807-1903) French dramatist. In 1855 he published his tragedy of Médée, the success of which had much to do with his election to the Académie française.

Delacroix created his oil painting Medée (or Medea in a Fury) between 1836 and 1838 at the height of the French Romantic revolution. The painting has been in the collection of the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille since 1839.