From 1844 until his death, thanks to the progress of the railway lines linking Paris to the provinces, Eugène Delacroix was able to make frequent trips to the Sénart forest and its surrounding area. On 17 August 1858, he bought a house in Champrosay at 11 rue Alphonse Daudet. It is there that the artist would have executed this large watercolour, according to the inscription, which mentions the location in the lower left-hand corner. Delacroix spent long periods in this village, which became something of a refuge for him, particularly when he was working on the Chapel of the Holy Angels in the church of Saint Sulpice, Paris. During this period he spent more time in the countryside, travelling to Paris during the day to paint the murals in the church. The date of 28 October 1860 on this sheet indicates that the drawing was completed on a Sunday, a day of rest during a very busy period for the artist. Around the 15th November of the same year, Delacroix wrote in his diary that he hoped his health and resolve would sustain him for a month or so, long enough to be able to complete this important commission, the last of his life. The attention that Delacroix paid to flowers and nature was multiplied in his diary, which also functioned as a herbarium; the artist scattered real, pressed flowers in it, most of which have now unfortunately been lost (see Delacroix, Othoniel, Creten. Des fleurs en hiver, exh. cat., Paris, Musée Eugène Delacroix, 2012, p. 147). In a famous letter, the author George Sand recalled the artist's passion for plants and flowers, and for the silhouettes created by the dried flowers between the pages (Delacroix, Othoniel, Creten. Des fleurs en hiver, p. 147). One might be tempted to imagine that the two rose branches in this watercolour grew in the garden of his house in Champrosay, where the artist liked to stroll after meals or read in the sun. However, Lyne Penet has observed that the flowers Delacroix depicted in his watercolours rarely coincide with those known to have grown in his garden (Lyne Penet, ‘Delacroix en ses jardins’, in Delacroix et la Nature, exh. cat., Paris, Musée Eugène Delacroix, 2022, p. 53). There are, however, reasons to cast doubt on the authenticity of this sheet. The collector's stamp appears to be a forged one (Lugt 838b), often found on drawings of animals by artists such as Edme Saint-Marcel, Auguste Lançon, Rosa Bonheur or Delacroix’s pupil Louis-Eugène Lambert. The smaller leaves on the upper branch of the rose, which appear lighter green, suggest new growth; however, if the date on the drawing indicates when it was created, a rose producing new growth at the end of October would seem unusual. Are we therefore looking at the work of an imitator of Delacroix's style, a forger, or a drawing by Delacroix bearing a forged stamp? It is difficult to ascertain who among the aforementioned artists could have drawn this sheet, as their imitations of Delacroix's style are mostly confined to drawings of animals. Compared with other watercolours of flowers by the artist, however, this drawing shows a certain rigidity. An in-depth study of the papers used by Delacroix could perhaps help further research, as this sheet has a complete and clearly legible watermark, but to date this research has not been carried out on the artist’s entire graphic corpus. If it is not by Delacroix, the forger has taken great care to invent an image of a rosebush that Delacroix could have plausibly drawn, imitating his handwriting in the bottom left-hand corner.

sale of the artist, L. 838a (lower left), Hotel Drouot (Paris), 17-29 February 1864 (not clear from catalogue which lot); Galerie de Bayser (Paris); purchased from there via Arthur Goldschmidt (Paris) by Count Antoine Seilern, London (1901-1978), October 1953 (100,000 francs); Princes Gate Bequest 1978

Mantegna to Cezanne - Master Drawings from the Courtauld, British Museum, London, 24/02/1983-19/06/1983

The Princes Gate Collection - Drawings (Selection B), The Courtauld Gallery, London, 29/01/1982-25/07/1982

Mantegna to Cezanne: Master Drawings from the Courtauld, British Museum, London, 1983
no. 107,
ill. on p. 109

The Princes Gate Collection - Drawings (Selection B), The Courtauld Gallery, London, 1982
cat. no. 150

Seilern, Count Antoine, Paintings and drawings of Continental Schools other than Flemish and Italian at 56 Princes Gate, London SW7, London 1961; III
no. 235
pl. LX

Watermark: Watermark: centre: shield containing letters "HR", topped by a laurel wreath and flanked by laurel leaves.

Collector's mark: Recto: lower left edge, stamped in dark red: ED (L.838b according to Laurence Lhinares). The mark is very smudged.

Inscription: Recto: lower left, graphite, dated: "Champrosay 28 oct. 60".