Muley-Abd-Err-Rahmann, sultan du Maroc sortant de son palais de Mequinez
The Sultan of Morocco riding out from his palace at Meknes under a parasol, guards around him — a scene Delacroix witnessed in 1832.
Medina of Meknes
The painting depicts a real landscape or cityscape. The precise viewpoint the artist used may be unknown, so the marker shows the general area.
Muley-Abd-Err-Rahmann, sultan du Maroc sortant de son palais de Mequinez — at a glance
- Artist
- Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863)
- Year
- 1845 (from 1832 studies)
- Movement
- French Romanticism / Orientalism
- Place
- The mechouar (parade ground) before the palace at Meknes, Morocco
- Viewpoint
- A scene Delacroix witnessed in 1832 — the imperial city of Meknes survives (World Heritage); composed from memory and drawings
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 377 × 340 cm
- Now at
- Musée des Augustins, Toulouse
Overview
This large canvas by Eugène Delacroix, shown at the Salon of 1845, records a scene he had witnessed thirteen years earlier: on 22 March 1832, as part of a French diplomatic mission, he watched Sultan Moulay Abd al-Rahman of Morocco ride out from his palace at Meknes to give an audience. The Sultan sits a grey horse at the centre under a raised parasol, flanked by ministers on foot and mounted guards, before the high blank walls of the palace. It is oil on canvas, about 377 by 340 cm, and it hangs in the Musée des Augustins, Toulouse.
Where was Muley-Abd-Err-Rahmann, sultan du Maroc sortant de son palais de Mequinez painted?
Scholarship Meknes, one of Morocco's imperial cities, was largely built by Sultan Moulay Ismail around 1700, with vast walls, gates and parade grounds (mechouars). The audience took place on the open ground before the palace walls. Delacroix filled sketchbooks on the 1832 journey and worked from them for years. The imperial city of Meknes — its walls, the Bab Mansour gate, the mechouars — survives and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, so the kind of place is real and visitable; Delacroix composed the scene from memory and drawings rather than painting a fixed view.
What is in the painting?
The Sultan, robed in white, sits an almost stationary grey horse in the centre; a servant holds a large parasol over him. Around him: two ministers in dark robes standing at his stirrup, a mounted standard-bearer, soldiers in red and white with muskets, a black guard. Behind, the long ochre wall of the palace with a gateway; a strip of hot sky. Dust and strong sun.
Look closely
The Sultan under the parasol
Robed in white on an almost motionless grey horse, a servant holding a raised parasol over him.
The ministers at the stirrup
Two dark-robed officials stand on foot at the Sultan's horse.
The palace wall
The long blank ochre wall of the Meknes palace, with a gateway, closes the background.
The red-and-white guards
Musket-bearing soldiers and a black guard flank the group in the dust and sun.
Analysis
Composition and technique
A near-symmetrical, almost frieze-like group centred on the still figure of the Sultan against a blank sunlit wall.
Scholarship Delacroix arranges the entourage in a broad, shallow band and centres the motionless Sultan under the parasol, giving the scene the calm gravity of a state occasion; the composition has often been compared to a classical relief or an equestrian portrait. Warm colour and strong North African light unify it.
History & provenance
The painting is in the Musée des Augustins, Toulouse.
Sources
- Musée des Augustins, Toulouse — collection entry for Eugène Delacroix, ‘Le Sultan du Maroc et sa garde’ (‘Muley Abd-er-Rahman...’, 1845)
- UNESCO World Heritage — Historic City of Meknes
Related paintings
The Snake Charmer
1879
Gérôme's studio-composite East — the opposite of Delacroix's from-life Orientalism.
Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi
1826
Delacroix's other great ‘event’ picture, an allegory rather than an eyewitness scene.
The Great Bath at Bursa
1885
Gérôme's invented hammam — Orientalism without the travel.
More by Eugène Delacroix
The Massacre at Chios