Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863). Studies of four Greek coins, 1825. Lithograph. 20x18cm. Third state of four. Signed and dated in stone. Delteil 43. Usual foxing. Of great numismatic interest. From a European private collection

Beyond his most emblematic works, it is less known that the young Delacroix had a taste for the design of ancient coins. For two years, between 1824 and 1825, he thus produced drawings and lithographs depicting Greek coins - still perfectly recognizable today - from the Cabinet des Médailles. Critic and art historian Théophile Silvestre described these studies as "the foundation of Delacroix's drawing system"...Rather than prescribing a contour, the content "determines the shape and measure of the container," an approach to drawing from the middle that Delacroix believed he had inherited from the ancients.