Pietà

Pieta from around 1850 at the Norwegian National Museum shows Delacroix treating the quintessential devotional subject with Romantic emotional intensity. His religious paintings bring passionate color and dramatic handling to traditional sacred subjects. Delacroix executed the work with his characteristic broken, energetic brushwork and rich colorism, building up his surfaces in ways that directly influenced the Impressionists who studied his technique at the Louvre after his death.

The mourning figures surround Christ with emotional intensity and vibrant color. Delacroix's dramatic brushwork transforms traditional devotion into passionate Romantic expression.