If 1863 was the year of the scandal with Déjeuner sur l'herbe by Manet – the main character of the " Salon des Refusés " -, this date should also be remembered as the year of death of the great master of that generation of painters: Eugène Delacroix. Henri Fantin-Latour, impressed and excited after visiting the moribund master, and encouraged by Manet and Baudelaire himself, began the production of his famous Hommage à Delacroix. This canvas is a manifestation for the next generation of artists and critics – such as Baudelaire and Champfleury -, reunited around the image of the disappeared master.

The exhibition exhibited these days at the Musée national Eugène Delacroix in Paris, tells the story of this composition through preparatory drawings and the relationship of the people involved. A unique story based on the brotherhood between works and artists, that struggle to be linked from the legacy left by the dissapeared master. As it was to be expected, the critical reception of the work was immediate. The admiration for the work by Delacroix was undeniable, but the commitments and alliances of convenience built around them in this contemporary discourse was questioned, especially by the role assumed by the "Société des Trois" : Fantin-Latour, Alphonse Legros and James Whistler.

In addition to the recreation of pictorial tribute by Fantin-Latour, the exhibition has honored another figure, the sculptor Jules Dalou, through the great monumental bronze inaugurated in 1889 in the Luxembourg Gardens. Curated by Christophe Leribault, director of the Musée national Eugène Delacroix and Deputy Director of the Department of Prints and Drawings of the Louvre, the exhibition Fantin-Latour, Manet, Baudelaire, L'Hommage à Delacroix will remain open to the public until March 19, 2012 in Paris. Alejandro Martinez

• Go to Musée national Eugène Delacroix |
• Back to News