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Eugène Delacroix, 'Christ on the Cross', 1853

About the work

Delacroix depicts a moment from the Crucifixion, recounted in the Gospel of John (19: 25–30), when Christ speaks to his mother, the Virgin Mary, and one of his disciples, John, just before he dies. Christ’s mother, dressed in blue and yellow robes, collapses into the arms of Mary Cleophas and John. At the foot of the cross, Mary Magdalene prays as she looks up at Christ. Unusually, Delacroix also includes Judas Iscariot in the lower right corner.

Delacroix places us among the group at the foot of the Cross, as we too look up at Christ’s body. The use of colour is especially powerful as the greenish-grey pallor of Christ’s body is echoed by the greys and pinkish-browns of the stormy sky. The agitated brushwork combines expressive energy with the immediacy of a sketch.

Key facts

Full title
Christ on the Cross
Artist
Eugène Delacroix
Artist dates
1798 - 1863
Date made
1853
Medium and support
oil on canvas
Dimensions
73.5 × 59.7 cm
Inscription summary
Signed; Dated
Acquisition credit
Bought, 1976
Inventory number
NG6433
Location
Room 38
Collection
Main Collection
Frame
18th-century English Frame

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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Abel Widmer
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Louis-Auguste Schwiter
Louis-Auguste Schwiter
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Delacroix painted this portrait of fellow artist, Louis-Auguste Schwiter (1805–1899), in the early years of their lifelong friendship. Not only was this Delacroix’s first full-length portrait, but it also reveals the close attention he paid to work by British artists such as Thomas Gainsborough (...
Central Hall
Ovid among the Scythians
Ovid among the Scythians
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In AD 8 the Roman poet Ovid, author of the poem Metamorphoses, was banished for life by the Emperor Augustus to the port of Tomis on the coast of the Black Sea. At that time, this region was inhabited by the Scythians, nomadic warrior-tribes who originally came from the area now known as southern...
Not on display