The joy of Delacroix

The Sackler Museum is temporarily shut down because of COVID-19.

But people can take virtual tours of the show with audio guides on the museum's WeChat account.

The Louvre hosted a historic exhibition in 2018 in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to survey Delacroix's entire career. Its introduction described the artist as "an engaging character" and "a virtuoso writer, painter and illustrator who was curious, critical … and devoted to his work".

The Sackler Museum exhibition gives a similar impression.

The displayed works reveal Delacroix's love of Shakespeare and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, his admiration for the 16th-and 17th-century Flemish and Venetian masters, such as Peter Rubens, his critical views on social issues and an interest in Eastern cultures.

The exhibition features 15 Hamlet-themed lithographs-Delacroix made 16 pieces for the series-and 13 lithographs from a collection of 17 illustrating Goethe's dramatic work, Faust.

Delacroix left behind more than 100 etchings and lithographs.