Baron Schwiter (Louis Auguste Schwiter, 1805–1889)

The early and highly detailed work, Baron Schwiter (Louis Auguste Schwiter, 1805–1889), was executed by Eugène Delacroix in 1826. This classification of the work is a print, specifically a lithograph produced using the refined chine collé technique, and it represents the only known state of the image.

The subject is Louis Auguste Schwiter (1805–1889), a young man who was both a fellow painter and a close friend of the artist. Delacroix created this intimate portrait during the height of the Romantic movement in France, utilizing the medium of prints to capture the psychological depth and emotional intensity characteristic of his approach to rendering men. Unlike many of his monumental oil paintings, this smaller work allowed Delacroix to explore the subtleties achievable through lithography.

The specialized chine collé process, where the image is printed on thin, delicate paper that is then mounted (collé) to a heavier backing sheet, lends a unique, nuanced tonality and surface quality to the final piece. The work demonstrates Delacroix’s early mastery of this printing technique, establishing him as a significant figure not just in painting but also in the graphic arts of the period. This important portrait, which captures the formality and sensibility of early 19th-century portraiture, is a crucial example of Delacroix's engagement with lithography during the 1820s. It currently resides in the permanent collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.