Babylonian Captivity

Delacroix's Babylonian Captivity of 1842 depicts the Jewish captives weeping by the rivers of Babylon, a subject from Psalm 137 that carried double resonance — the historical exile of the Hebrews and the contemporary political condition of oppressed peoples everywhere in the Romantic imagination. Delacroix treated the subject with the melancholic grandeur appropriate to a meditation on captivity and cultural survival, the figures' mourning postures against a Babylonian architectural backdrop creating a study in collective grief. The biblical subject provided cover for contemporary political sympathy.

The architectural format demanded a decorative approach, with figures arranged across a curved surface. Delacroix adapted his coloristic style to the challenges of mural painting, using strong, clear hues visible from a distance.