The Barque of Dante
1822 · Oil on canvas · Musée du Louvre, Paris
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About this work
- Artist
- Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863)
- Year
- 1822
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Original size
- 189 × 241.5 cm
- Collection
- Musée du Louvre, Paris
- Movement
- Romanticism
Dante and Virgil cross the river Styx in Phlegyas's boat while the damned claw at the hull and bite its timbers, and the city of Dis burns in the smoke behind them. The scene is from Canto VIII of the Inferno, a passage then little known in France. It was Delacroix's first painting shown in public and his first entry to the Paris Salon, in 1822, worked up at speed in about two and a half months and finished days before the opening. The response was divided: Gros compared it to Rubens, others found the composition loose. The state bought it for 2,000 francs and placed it in the Musée du Luxembourg, which guaranteed its transfer to the Louvre after the artist's death; it arrived there in 1874. The droplets of water on the figures, painted in unmixed touches of pure colour, are an early sign of Delacroix's analytical approach to colour.
This exhibition-poster edition shows the whole work beneath original typography set in-house. The original is in the public domain.
Where it works
Dante and Virgil crossing the Styx with the damned clawing at the hull and a burning city behind, a dark picture for a study, library wall or den at 24×36 in black. A charcoal, deep red or dark green wall; it reads across a room.
- Style
- Exhibition poster of a Romanticism painting
- Era
- 19th century (1822)
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Palette
- cream & beige
- Mood
- grand
- Rooms
- living room, dining room, dorm room, hallway or entryway
- Good gift for
- housewarming, art lovers
Size. Prints at 12×18, 16×24, 24×36 in — 12×18 for a shelf, desk or a gallery-wall grid; 16×24 above a desk, console or in a hallway; 24×36 as the statement piece above a sofa or bed.
Framing. Exhibition posters sit best in a slim black frame with no mat — the typeset margin is the mat.
Pairing. Pairs as a set of three with other famous painting prints (10% off three or more).
Details & materials
Shipping & returns
Is this the whole painting, or a crop?
Is The Barque of Dante in the public domain?
What is it printed on?
When was The Barque of Dante painted, and in what medium?
What size works above a sofa or bed?
About this design
The Madten promise
A fine-art print
The same artwork as a clean fine-art print — the image shown large with a minimal caption.
The full-bleed edition
The same plate printed edge-to-edge, filling the whole sheet — bold and immersive.
