Eugène Delacroix in Cadiz

97 pages of sketchbooks

Street corners, monks moving in prayer, women adorned with mantillas… Fascinated, Delacroix sketched and drew 97 pages of watercolors and drawings with a pen, capturing Andalusia from Cádiz to Seville.
Some of these would serve as the basis for his works:  “Columbus and His Son in La Rábida”, on display at the National Gallery in Washington, set against the backdrop of the sacristy of the Santo Domingo convent in the Santa Maria district.

Historical errors

When Delacroix died, his precious sketchbooks—which had been kept secret—were sold at auction by his family. The hastily published catalog was riddled with errors: one watercolor was listed as “Plaza de San Francisco” instead of “A Street in Seville”. Another is titled  “Inner Courtyard in Morocco” … located at number 6 on San Francisco Street.

As luck would have it, things worked out well once again: in the early 2010s, nearly 150 years later, the Cádiz-based historian Juan Antonio Vila Martínes was researching the works of the Orientalist painter Adrien Dauzats. One of the painter’s close friends was none other than Delacroix. The historian then became interested in his watercolors. He discovered the existence of the sketchbooks and noticed the watercolor “A Street in Seville”, two watchtowers—a hallmark of Cádiz. These towers, built on rooftop terraces by wealthy merchants, were a ruse to exceed the regulatory height limits for buildings. Towers designed to be at the forefront of the horizon, allowing for communication through signs and gestures with the merchant frigates arriving from the Americas. With the help of Google Maps, passionate locals from Cádiz, and his own children, Juan Antonio Vila Martínez sets out in search of this tower—proof that Eugène Delacroix did indeed walk the patio at 6 San Francisco Street in Cádiz.

 “I came across this work by chance; it was exhibited at the Thyssen Museum in Madrid in 2000 as part of an exhibition titled ‘Miradas sin tiempo’ from the collection of Jan Kruggier, who had his foundation in Geneva. It was titled ‘Courtyard in Morocco,’ but from the very beginning, I determined that it must be Cádiz due to the presence of two watchtowers. I searched the rooftops of Cádiz until I found the one on the left side of the composition, which is located on a building on what is now San Francisco Street.” Juan Antonio Vila – Excerpt from the interview “La voz de Cádiz,” Dec. 2019.