Eugene Delacroix Painting Stolen from Prestigious Paris Art Gallery

Eugene Delacroix Painting Stolen

A painting by the French romantic painter Eugene Delacroix was stolen on Friday from the prestigious Schmit art gallery in Paris. The small work (15 cm high, 19 cm wide) painted in 1833 and is entitled the Arabs of Oran. It was exhibited in the gallery on Rue Saint-Honoré in the 1st arrondissement in Paris.

According to the first report, an employee of the art gallery said the picture was last sighted in the early afternoon, but must have disappeared leaving a table with a small empty easel. They added a stranger could have removed the canvas and run away with it. CCTV footage is now being checked. The theft occurred between 14: 00 and 14: 30 according to the police and it is thought a man aged 50, wearing a long jacket, a scarf and sunglasses is of interest to the police. A gallery assistant stated that the canvas was not immediately noticed and reported as missing. The work is thought to be valued at 650,000 euros.

 Delacroix was the leading exponent of Romanticism in French painting. He was trained by the Neo-classical painter Pierre Guérin, from 1816 to about 1823. Guérin also taught Géricault.
Delacroix first exhibited at the Salon in 1822. In style his work shows the influence of painters he had studied, notably Rubens. He was an admirer of English painting, and visited England in 1825. In 1832 he travelled to Spain, Morocco and Algiers. After the Revolution of 1830 he was favoured by Louis-Philippe, and later by Napoleon III, with a long series of official commissions, beginning in 1833 with a series of decorations in the Palais Bourbon. His work is highly sought after in the Middle East where is has found a lucrative market. The Web reference is still available on the site of the gallery (See link Here)
http://www.galerieschmit.com/3.aspx?ProdID=c5da7265-1090-464e-b869-e7339f67f64d&CatID=68922b08-0b11-48b7-a225-6c0098f4543c&sr=0

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