Eugène Delacroix

Lionne déchirant la Poitrine d'un Arabe Delteil 25 soft-ground etching and roulette, 1849, on yellowish Chine appliqué on medium-heavy ivory wove paper, a very fine and crisp proof impression of the rare 1st state (of 3), before letters, and before the first edition, with wide margins, slight foxing in the margins, along with an insignificant paper loss left margin, and two very short handling tears (approx. 5mm) lower margin, some diffuse soiling on the reverse, otherwise in very good condition P. 212x280mm, S. 351x484mm.

This was Delacroix's very last etching (and his only soft-ground etching), compounding two of his favorite subjects, feline studies and Oriental figures, with a grippingly dynamic handling.

It was first published in the well-known art magazine, L'Artiste, June 1849, the present impression thus predating this edition.

The first state is also by far the most desirable (in Delteil's time - if one looks closely at the collections and the sales results cited therein - as in our own), the fine sooty aspect imparted by the early impressions of the fragile soft-ground medium rendering rather poorly in the subsequent edition.