Page of Sketches: Studies of Heads and the Figure of Christ

Description

Around 1830 France looked back to the political events of the middle of the seventeenth century in England. Both countries had seen revolutions take down their kings and, after the reigns of Cromwell in England and of Napoleon in France, the restoration to the throne of their royal families. In 1830, Louis-Philippe d’Orléans was able to bring about a peaceful parliamentary revolution, the July Revolution; it suggested a parallel with William of Nassau in England. The theme of Cromwell, referred to in this sketchsheet, must be understood in this context.
At the Salon of 1831 Delacroix saw Paul Delaroche’s Cromwell and Charles I. Delaroche had painted Cromwell lifting the coffin and looking at his dead rival without any sign of compassion. According to Paul Huet, Delacroix had said that Delaroche’s painting was "meaningless"; it was obvious "that Cromwell would never have come there on purpose and, impelled by who knows what unhealthy and cynical curiosity, lifted the coffin of his victim like the lid of a snuffbox." Delacroix, according to Huet, imagines the subject differently: "Cromwell lifts a drape and suddenly finds himself face to face with the cadaver. . . . The place is still, silent, shrouded in darkness and mystery."
As an improvement on Delaroche’s painting, Delacroix executed a watercolor whose present location is unknown. Three of the motifs in our sketch relate to this work. Our drawing shows the heads of both protagonists, Charles I’s at upper left, Cromwell’s at upper right. Below the drawing of Charles I’s head is a schematic representation of his body lying in his coffin, which is slightly inclined. Cromwell’s face and arm are shown in three-quarter view, and his solemn look accords with the seriousness of the episode.