Sunday, 26 June 2011

Art in the Field

Eugene Delacroix used art sketchbooks in much the same way as a field naturalist, or lab biochemist, would use a notebook. As a record of intense observation.

His sketchbooks from Morocco are particularly beautiful, they are vibrant and integrated sketches and notations.

A high resolution page is HERE.


From a journal entry dated October 17, 1853:

“I began to make something tolerable of my African journey only when I had forgotten the trivial details and remembered nothing but the striking and poetic side of the subject. Up to that time, I had been haunted by that passion for accuracy that most people mistake for truth.”




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