One of nearly twenty works by French Romantic painter Eugène Delacroix in UMMA’s collection, Lycurgus Consulting the Pythia will be a part of a special exhibition titled Delacroix and the Matter of Finish. The exhibition will be on view at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art (SBMA) in Santa Barbara, California from October 27, 2013 through January 26, 2014 and at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Birmingham, Alabama from February 23 to May 18, 2014. Organized by SBMA Assistant Director and Chief Curator, Eik Kahng, the exhibition features approximately 35 paintings and showcases the surprising variety of painterly finish in the 19th-century French master’s practice, whose groundbreaking Romanticism is normally associated with a jewel-like palette and loose, sketchy brushwork. It is the first presentation to dramatize the clear distinction between Delacroix’s hand and that of his best-known students.
