A Young Black Woman Fetching Water — About This Work
Eugène Delacroix, 1832
About the Work
A young woman carries a water vessel, her upright figure giving the sheet its main structure. Watercolour, graphite and touches of gouache provide different degrees of transparency and emphasis within the small scene.
Delacroix made the work during the 1832 journey that took him to Spain, Morocco and Algeria with a French diplomatic mission. The museum describes the woman as likely enslaved, a qualification that matters when considering the circumstances behind the image.
Her task is represented directly, but the drawing cannot tell us her name or her own account of the encounter. Holding that limit alongside the visual detail allows the work to be considered without converting an observed figure into an invented personal story.
The Work
Artist: Eugène Delacroix
Title: A Young Black Woman Fetching Water
Date: 1832
Medium: Watercolor and graphite, heightened with gouache on paper
Recorded dimensions: 16.4 × 23.5 cm (W × H)
Collection: Cleveland Museum of Art
Accession number: 2023.123
Print & Presentation
Palatine presentation: 30 × 30 cm Classic Frame, portrait.
The complete artwork is reproduced at its recorded scale, subject only to negligible whole-pixel rounding, without enlargement, reduction, cropping or distortion. The surrounding white presentation area accommodates the artwork within the framed presentation and is incorporated into the print rather than added as a separate mount.
Frame finishes: Black, White or Natural.
Paper & glazing: Enhanced Matte + Perspex; or Enhanced Matte + Moth-Eye.
Why Original Scale?
Most art-print shops offer the same image in a choice of Small, Medium and Large sizes. We take a different approach. For each edition, we begin with the recorded dimensions of the original work and reproduce the complete image at that scale, preserving its proportions and avoiding enlargement, reduction, cropping or distortion.
Source: Image: The Cleveland Museum of Art, CC0. Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund. 2023.123.
Care: Display in a dry interior away from prolonged direct sunlight and sources of moisture.
Notes from Palatine
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