  About the Artwork
  
  
  Using rich, jewel-like tones applied with a fluid brush, Eugène Delacroix presents his sitter, the physician François-Marie Desmaisons, silhouetted against a stormy sky. The gathering clouds, shot through with only glimmers of light, may reflect Desmaisons’s contemplative mood. The doctor looks off to left, as if absorbed in serious thought. So unaware is he of the viewer’s gaze that he hooks his right thumb into the armhole of his waistcoat with a casual, private gesture, as if he is alone. Desmaisons must have been fond of this likeness, which he presented to his mother and then retained after her death.
  
  
  Title
  A Portrait of Dr. François-Marie Desmaisons
  
  
  Artwork Date
  ca. between 1832 and 1833
  
  Artist
  Eugène Delacroix
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1798-1863
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  French
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
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  Medium
  Oil on canvas
  
  
  Dimensions
  Framed: 35 × 30 5/16 × 3 1/4 inches (88.9 × 77 × 8.3 cm)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  European Painting
  
  
  Credit
  Founders Society Purchase, Robert H. Tannahill Foundation Fund
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  2001.63
  
  
  Copyright
  Public Domain
