Artwork
Charles VI et Odette de Champdivers
Charles VI et Odette de Champdivers is an oil painting by the French Romanticist artist Eugène Delacroix. It dates from 1826 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Overview
Eugène Delacroix completed the oil painting *Charles VI et Odette de Champdivers* in 1826. The canvas presents the medieval French king and his mistress in an intimate interior, surrounded by two attendants. Warm illumination against a dark backdrop highlights the figures, creating a tense yet tender atmosphere. The work belongs to the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
Subject & Meaning
The composition centers on Charles VI, dressed in a black coat trimmed with gold, red breeches, and a blue headdress, seated beside Odette de Champdivers, who wears a richly patterned gown and a golden headpiece. Two male figures flank them—one bearing a sword, the other engaged in conversation with the woman—suggesting the intertwining of personal affection and courtly duty within the late‑medieval French court.
Technique & Style
Influences from Rubens and the Venetian masters appear in the sumptuous fabrics, the luminous skin tones, and the dramatic chiaroscuro that models the scene.
Delacroix employs his characteristic emphasis on vibrant colour and dynamic movement, favoring expressive brushwork over strict anatomical exactness. Influences from Rubens and the Venetian masters appear in the sumptuous fabrics, the luminous skin tones, and the dramatic chiaroscuro that models the scene. The painter’s handling of light and shade intensifies the emotional charge of the encounter.
History & Provenance
Created early in Delacroix’s career, the painting reflects his growing interest in historical and romantic subjects that would define his later oeuvre. After its exhibition in the 1820s, the canvas entered private collections before being acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it remains on view as part of the museum’s European paintings holdings.
Artist & collection
Artist
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( DEL-ə-krwah, -KRWAH; French: ; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.
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