La Pietà, from "L'Illustration"

La Pietà, from "L'Illustration" by Eugène Delacroix, executed in 1863, represents a powerful and somber religious composition marking the final stage of the artist's prolific career. Although Delacroix is internationally famed for his grand oil paintings, this specific impression exists as a wood engraving, a popular printmaking technique of the mid-19th century utilized primarily for mass reproduction and magazine illustration.

The subject matter, the Pietà, depicts the sorrowful moment when the Virgin Mary cradles the body of her dead son, Christ, after his deposition from the cross. This motif was a recurrent interest in Delacroix’s oeuvre, allowing him to explore intense emotionality and dramatic tension. This interpretation, created in the year of the artist’s death, retains the characteristic Romantic pathos and dramatic chiaroscuro for which Delacroix was renowned. The translation of the composition into a wood engraving allowed the work’s intense visual drama to be widely appreciated outside of traditional academic settings.

The appearance of this image within the influential French illustrated magazine L'Illustration underscores the importance of reproductive prints in disseminating the ideas and images of prominent artists to a broad contemporary audience. As a significant example of 19th-century religious prints and graphic art, this piece offers insight into how masterworks were translated for the popular press. Today, the composition of La Pietà is recognized globally, often found circulating in the public domain, ensuring continued study of the Romantic master's concluding efforts. This specific impression is proudly held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.