The Shipwreck of Don Juan: A Sketch

Delacroix's sketch for The Shipwreck of Don Juan from the 1820s relates to his major painting Don Juan's Shipwreck (1840, Louvre), which depicted the survivors of a wreck drawing lots to determine who would be eaten. The subject was drawn from Byron's Don Juan, Canto II, which Delacroix knew intimately — Byron was his primary literary source throughout his career, providing the combination of dark irony, physical violence, and Romantic excess that appealed to his pictorial imagination. This early sketch documents the painting's conception before the definitive canvas, showing his initial approach to the horrific subject of survival cannibalism treated with the detached elegance of the Byronic mode.

The oil on canvas shows Delacroix's characteristic bold, expressive brushwork and dramatic color contrasts. The sketch's energy and spontaneity capture the desperation of the scene, with the loose handling and vivid palette demonstrating his revolutionary approach to painting technique.