One highlight on March 24 is this Orientalist pastel of an Arab hunter stalking a lion which has the added attraction of having belonged to Edgar Degas, who owned no fewer than 230 of Delacroix’s works: paintings, drawings and prints.
A painting of the same composition was sold by Christie’s in 2017 and can be dated to 1854 through entries in the artist’s journal (a preparatory drawing for that work is in the Louvre).
The pastel to be offered in Paris measures 9½ x 12in (24 x 31cm) and has an estimate of €250,000-350,000.
Other works by Delacroix in the March auction include another Orientalist work, a 12 x 7½in (30.5 x 19cm) standing figure of an Arab man, in pencil, watercolour and bodycolour estimated at (€60,000-80,000).
Also, a 9½ x 5¾in (24 x 14.5cm) ink, watercolour and bodycolour scene showing Mephistopheles appearing before Faust, which has a €50,000-70,000 guide.
The auction is preceded on the same day by a 24-lot single-owner sale of Old Master drawings from a private collection.
