Self-Portrait as Ravenswood
by DELACROIX, Eugène, Oil on canvas, 41 x 32 cm
The Paris of the Romantic era was under the spell of Scott and Byron. The historical novel was all the rage, and the French Romantics, notably Hugo and Dumas pere, were subject to this combined influence. As early as 1821, when he was twenty-three years old, Delacroix painted himself as Ravenswood, Lucy’s lover in Sir Walter Scott’s novel The Bride of Lammermoor (1819).
Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 4 minutes):
Gaetano Donizetti: Lucia di Lammermoor, Act II, Sextet