Artwork details · 2026-02-14

Death of Sardanapalus

by Eugène Delacroix · 1827

Death of Sardanapalus by Eugène Delacroix

Artist

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.

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Artwork

The Death of Sardanapalus is an 1827 oil painting on canvas by the French artist Eugène Delacroix, now in the Musée du Louvre, Paris. A smaller replica he made in 1844 is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. It is a work of Romanticism based on the tale of Sardanapalus, a king of Assyria, from Greek historian Diodorus Siculus's library. It uses rich, vivid and warm colours and broad brushstrokes, was inspired by Lord Byron's play Sardanapalus (1821) and inspired a Hector Berlioz cantata, Sardanapale (1830), and an unfinished Franz Liszt opera, Sardanapalo (1845–1852).

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Quick facts

Artist
Eugène Delacroix
Year
1827
Movement
Romanticism
Country
France
Location
département des peintures du musée du Louvre