SOURCE: Hannoosh, Michèle. “Introduction” and “A Language for Painting: The Dictionnaire des Beaux-Arts.” In Painting and the Journal of Eugene Delacroix, pp. 3-22, 93-105. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995.

In the following essay, Hannoosh discusses the development of paradoxes and complexities in Delacroix's Journal. The critic also evaluates Delacroix's various articles on the arts as well as his unfinished essay Dictionnaire des Beaux-Arts.

Introduction

Tuesday, 3 September 1822—I am carrying out my plan, formulated so many times, of writing a diary. What I want most keenly is not to lose sight of the fact that I am writing it for myself alone; thus I will be truthful, I hope; I will become the better for it. This paper will reproach me for my variations.

(I, 1)

[Mardi 3 septembre 1822—Je mets à exécution le projet formé tant de fois d'écrire un journal. Ce que je désire le plus vivement...