Eugène Delacroix
The Abduction of Rebecca
1846
Eugène Delacroix's 'The Abduction of Rebecca' (1846) dramatises a passage from Walter Scott's 'Ivanhoe': the Jewish heroine Rebecca is borne away by Templar knights against the blaze of the burning castle of Torquilstone. Red cloaks, a rearing black horse, and swirling flame form the turbulent diagonal that defines Delacroix's mature Romanticism. The Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired the canvas in 1903 and it has hung as one of its signature 19th-century French paintings ever since.
Exhibition Venue
Image source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art