The Return of Christopher Columbus

Artist Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798-1863)

Place of OriginFrance

Date1839

DimensionsPainting: 33 1/2 × 45 1/2 in. (85.1 × 115.6 cm)
Frame: 46 1/2 × 58 1/4 × 5 in. (118.1 × 148 × 12.7 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LineThomas A. DeVilbiss Bequest Fund

Object number

1938.80

Not on View

Label TextThe plunder of the so-called New World—gold, weapons, pelts, small statues, and even captive Indigenous people—are presented to the court of Spain in this scene of Christopher Columbus’s return to Castile in 1493 after his first voyage to the Caribbean. The painting represents a celebratory view of Columbus as triumphant explorer, his patrons, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, rising to receive him and his crew. In reality, during his four sojourns in the Americas, Columbus and his men committed atrocities on the Taíno, Arawak, and other Indigenous peoples, enslaving them, torturing them, and massacring them. The rich colors, vibrant brushstrokes, and dramatic subject of the painting are typical of Eugène Delacroix’s Romantic style (see also his Botzaris Surprises the Turkish Camp, also in the Museum’s collection). It is one of a pair commissioned from Delacroix by the Russian count Anatole Demidoff, himself a sometimes explorer. The first, Columbus and His Son at the Monastery La Rábida, is now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC. It depicts Columbus seven years before his voyage.Published ReferencesMoreau, A., E. Delacroix et son oeuvre, Paris, 1873, pp. 94, 259.

Robaut, A., L'oeuvre complet de Eugène Delacroix, Paris, 1885, no. 690, repr.

Moreau-Nélaton, E., Delacroix raconté par lui-meme, Paris, 1916, I, pp. 192-193, fig. 181.

L'Illustration, Paris, June 21, 1930, repr. p. 288.

Toledo Museum News, no. 84, December 1938, repr. p. 1254.

Pach, The Journal of Eugène Delacroix, New York, 1938, repr. facing p. 272.

Thomas Alexander DeVilbiss, a Biography. (Compiled by students in an English class of Barbara Grace Spayd during their junior and senior years at DeVilbiss High School, Toledo, Ohio, 1938-1939, p. 36, 74.

Art News, XXXVII, January 7, 1939, p. 16, repr.

Art Digest, XIII, January 15, 1939, pp. 13, 16, repr.

Magazine of Art, XXXII, January 1939, p. 41, repr.

Godwin, Blake-More, European Paintings in the Toledo Museum, 1939, p. 170, repr. 171.

Bulletin, Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, vol. XXI, no. 1, 1939.

Rudrauf, L., Eugène Delacroix et le problème du romantisme artisque, Paris, 1942, pp. 249-250.

Gibson, Katharine, Pictures to Grow Up With, New York, 1942, p. 91, repr.

Lambert, E., "Delacroix et l'Espagne," La Revue des arts, Sep. 1951, pp. 159-171.

Illustrated London News, vol. 131, October 18, 1952, p. 637, repr.

Morse, John D., Old master paintings in North America, New York, Rand McNally & Company, 1955, pp. 55-56, repr.

Johnson, L., "Delacroix at the Biennale," Burlington Magazine, XCVIII, Sep. 1956, p. 327.

Rudrauf, L., "Delacroix et le Titien," Actes du XIXe congrès international d'histoire de l'art, 1958, Paris, 1959, pp. 527-528.

Connaisance, no. 125, July 1962, Paris, pp. 40-47, appendix, p. 111, repr. p. 45.

Johnson, L., Delacroix, London, 1963, pp. 5, 113, 121, pl. 33.

Huyghe, R., Delacroix, London, 1963, pp. 294, 303-304.

Sérullaz, M., Mémorial de l'exposition Eugène Delacroix, Paris, 1963, no. 282, pp. 210, 211-213, repr.

Goya, Sept.-Dec. 1963, no. 56/57, p. 212, illus. 209.

Chastel, André, "L'année Delacroix," Art de France, vol. 4, 1964, pp. 328-335.

Morse, John D., "Toledo Museum of Art," Toledo 1966, repr.

Sutton, Denys, "Nineteenth-Century Painting, Trends and Cross-Currents," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 491, repr. (b&w) fig. 18, p. 492.

Pool, P., Delacroix, London, 1969, pp. 10, 18, 35, pl. 27.

Trapp, F., The Attainment of Delacroix, Baltimore, 1971, pp. 193, 194, 196, fig. 114.

Bortolatto, L. R., L'opera pittorica completa di Delacroix, Milan, 1972, no. 340, repr.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, pp. 53-54, pl. 214.

The Toledo Museum of Art: A Guide to the Collections, Toledo, 1976, repr. p. 82.

Honour, Hugh, "L'Image de Christophe Columb," La Revue du Louvre, vol. 26, no. 4, 1976, p. 262, repr. fig. 13, p. 263.

Morse, John D., Old master paintings in North America, New York, 1979, p. 102, repr. (col.), p. 113.

Rumsey, Thomas R., Men and women of the Renaissance and Reformation 1300-1600, Wellesley Hills, Mass., 1981, p. 332, repr.

Delacroix, Tokyo, 1981, p. 118, repr. (col.) pl. 37, text in Japanese.

Friedlaender, Walter, David to Delacroix, Cambridge, Mass., 1952, p. 124.

Johnson, Lee, The paintings of Eugène Delacroix: a critical catalogue, Oxford, 1986, vol. 3, pp. 85-87, vol. 4, pl. 83.

Lequenne, Michel, Christopher Colomb: Amiral de la mer océane, Paris, 1991, p. 73, repr. (col.).

Zgórniak, Marek, Pedzel Tycjana, Cracow, 1995, p. 43, fig. 5, p. 44.

"Principales acquisitions des musées en 1995," Gazette des Beaux-Arts, repr. p. 72.

Sainty, Guy Stair, "Introduction" in Romance and chivalry, London, 1996, pp. 48-49.

Haddad, Michèle, "Delacroix et la couleur," in Delacroix, Paris, 1998, repr., p. 40, (col.) [Dossier de L'Art, no. 47].

Jobert, Barthelemy, Delacroix, Princeton, 1998, p. 271, fig. 226 (col.).

Eitner, Lorenz, French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century, Part I: Before Impressionism, Washington, 2000, pp. 221, 222, 226, no. 11, 227, no. 17, fig. 1, p. 222.

Exhibition HistoryNew York, Knoedler, A Century of French Painting, 1928, no. 9A, repr.

Paris, Louvre, Exposition Eugène Delacroix, 1930, no. 92.

Art Institute of Chicago, Delacroix Exhibition, 1930, no. 23.

New York, Knoedler, Gros-Géricault-Delacroix, 1938, no. 44, repr.

Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, A Concert of Masterpieces, 1939.

New York World's Fair, Masterpieces of Art, 1940, no. 246.

New York, Wildenstein, Eugène Delacroix, 1944, no. 14, repr.

Art Gallery of Toronto Spirit of Modern France, 1946, and the Toledo Museum of Art.

Akron Art Institute, French Painting of the 19th Century, 1947.

Paul Rosenberg Gallery, New York, Delacroix and Renoir, 1948, no. 3, repr.

Columbus Gallery of Fine Arts, Masterpieces of Painting, 1950, no. 14.

Detroit Institute of Arts, French Painting from David to Courbet, 1950, no. 33, repr.