Sheet of Six Antique Medals

Eugène Delacroix began producing lithographs in the hopes of fulfilling his financial needs during the late 1820s. He primarily printed caricatures and political satires, illustrations from ancient French history, and scenes from his favorite works by Shakespeare and Goethe. The medals depicted in this lithograph belonged to Baron Schwiter and Duc de Blacas, for whom he printed lithograph portraits. Delacroix illustrated Duc de Blacas in a similar vignette style as that used for his medal sketches. Although he created this work as a commercial venture, he was unsuccessful in selling it to a publisher.