Study of Jacopo Brought before His Father, the Doge, for "The Two Foscari"

Study of Jacopo Brought before His Father, the Doge, for "The Two Foscari" is a preparatory drawing by Eugène Delacroix, executed in graphite in 1847. This sensitive drawing serves as a critical step in the artist’s process toward completing a major oil painting dedicated to the tragic subject matter.

The drawing illustrates a key dramatic scene derived from Lord Byron’s 1821 play, The Two Foscari, which recounts the fate of Jacopo Foscari, wrongly accused of treason and exiled by the Venetian state, led by his own father, Doge Francesco Foscari. Delacroix, a master of the Romantic movement, uses the medium of graphite to map out the complicated arrangement of figures. The drawing captures the intense psychological tension inherent in the confrontation, focusing particularly on the dramatic postures of the central men and the reaction of the attendant women, whose grief heightens the emotional charge of the moment.

Delacroix meticulously defined the composition, ensuring that the interplay of light and shadow emphasizes the anguish of Jacopo and the severe dilemma facing the Doge. As a study, it reveals the spontaneous energy and compositional clarity Delacroix sought to achieve before committing the design to canvas.

This significant drawing provides researchers and students with valuable documentation of the artist’s working method during his peak period. The work is classified as a drawing within the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, preserving an essential glimpse into Romantic visual culture. While the original artwork remains within The Met’s care, high-resolution public domain documentation ensures that prints and detailed studies of Delacroix’s preparatory work are accessible globally.