A Moroccan Couple on Their Terrace

A Moroccan Couple on Their Terrace

Eugène Delacroix

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is one of eighteen watercolors Delacroix presented to his travel companion, the diplomat Charles de Mornay, following their return from North Africa. The artist executed a number of the works while the men were quarantined for two weeks in Toulon. Inspired by the quality of Mediterranean light observed during the journey, he adopted a brighter palette than he had used previously. His fascination with Moroccan costume is apparent here in the attention he lavished on the multilayered attire of the woman, especially compared to his more abstract approach to other decorative aspects of the scene.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A Moroccan Couple on Their TerraceA Moroccan Couple on Their TerraceA Moroccan Couple on Their TerraceA Moroccan Couple on Their TerraceA Moroccan Couple on Their Terrace

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.