The MET's Delacroix Exhibit is the First Comprehensive N. American Retrospective - Not to be Missed

Eugene Delacroix (b France 1798-1863) is one the most prominent painters of the French Romantic era of the 19th C.  The Met's comprehensive exhibit of this master's work contains many of his large murals and spans his work over 4 decades.  Above the MET's entry curation is a quote from the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh (b. 1853-1890).  "Delacroix reveals the liveliness of things and the expression of movement, that he is utterly beyond the paint." I found this esteemed praise from this reticent master baffling.  Delacroix took his inspirations from historic battles, Greek mythology, literature, martyrdom and exotic locations.  There are numerous portraits and paintings of the human form and ferocious animals.  I was vexed by Van Gogh's descriptive praise.   I didn't readily grasp an awareness of movement & liveliness alluded to.  Going through the galleries, I began to note the softness of forms and a shift towards kinetic surges of power as portrayed in many battle scenes and crucification depictions.  I was struck by the large painting of a tiger and her cub. You sense the mother posed  to pounce on a threat of which her playful pup is unaware.  The expressive figurations of horses depicted in massacres and crusades whose agitation & fear emote starkly the chaos & impending destruction.  Delacroix favored a dark palette with hazy, brown & tepid blues in the background.  I found his portraitures, mostly of friends & family, very distinct and expressive.  Delacroix's first self-portrait is barely discernible.  The large self-portrait next to it is very striking.  However, it was not accepted by the Institute de France.  It took 6 more portraits and 20 years before he gained acceptance.  I was interested to see several of these self-portraits not included in this show.   I favored the paintings in the next to last gallery showing Christ amid ships being pitched in a tempest.  Here the rough waters and hazardous skies elicit violent turbulence & pending doom.  Delacroix magnificent paintings reflect influences by Rubens, Rembrandt and Goya.  I felt the retrospective held a sombre aura.  It would seem Van Gogh's use of vivid arbitrary colors and broken brush strokes are at odds with Delacroix's aesthetics.  Grasping the concept of Delacroix being in Van Gogh's words "...beyond the paint" is perplexing but worth considering when seeing this expansive & glorious retrospective of Delacroix's masterpieces.