Vincent van Gogh - The Pieta, after Delacroix 1889
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The Pieta, after Delacroix 1889
73x60cm oil/canvas
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam
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From Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam:
This Pietà – the Virgin Mary mourning over the dead Christ – is based on a lithograph by Nanteuil after a painting by Eugène Delacroix. Van Gogh painted it in 1889, during his confinement at the hospital in Saint-Rémy. It is more a variation on the original than a true copy: the painter adopted both the subject and composition, but executed it in his own color and style.
As he wrote to Theo, the pretext for the painting was an accident which had occurred during his illness: “The Delacroix lithograph La Pietà, as well as several others, fell into my oils and paints and was damaged. This upset me terribly, and I am now busy making a painting of it, as you will see.” The stained lithograph has also survived.