DELAMBRE, JBAN-BAPTISTE JOSEPH. 



DELAMBRE, JEAN BAPTIST E JOSEPH. 



artistic powen received a new direction by the offer of * passage as 

 attache' to a government mission to Marocco. One of the first works 

 suggested by his eastern travel* was ' Lea Femmet d'Alger,' exhibited 

 io 18S4, and DOW in the gallery of the Luxembourg, a work which 

 it wai the general opinion of the Parisian world of art placed M. 

 Delacroix at least on a level with Rubens at a colourist M. Tbien 

 was DOW minister of the interior, and he gave the painter, whose 

 eminence he had foretold, an opportunity of displaying his genius in 

 a higher walk of art than he had yet essayed, by confiding to him the 

 task of painting the walls of the Salon du Roi, at the Palais Bourbon. 

 On this work M. Delacroix was enraged from 1S34 to 1837. The 

 paintings are symbolical, and represent justice, law, war, agriculture, 

 industry, peace, &c., and they are regarded as very fine examples of 

 the artist's more elevated style. He has adorned also the library of 

 the same palace with paintings of the ' Oolden Ago ' and the ' Invasion 

 of Attils.' The admiration excited by these works led to his being 

 called upon to paint portions of the interior of various other public 

 buildings in Paris, including the H6H de Ville, the Luxembourg, and 

 the Louvre, as well as several churches: indeed M. Delacroix has 

 probably executed more great works of this high class than any other 

 contemporary French artist. But his public commissions have been 

 so far from absorbing his time that, during their execution he has 

 produced a succession of important gallery and cabinet paintings, 

 among which may be named his famous ' Medea,' now in the gallery 

 of the Luxembourg, a 'Cleopatra,' the 'Battle of Toillebourg,' for 

 the gallery at Versailles, ' Hamlet with the skull of Yorick,' the 

 ' Taking of Constantinople by the Latins,' ' Christ at the Tomb,' 

 ' Resurrection of Lazarus,' ' Une Odalisque,' ' Famines d'Alger dans 

 leurs iiiti'rieur,' and numerous other scriptural and eastern subject*. 

 as well as several from the works of Shakspere, Scott, *e., and a few 

 portraits, among which is a well known one of Madame Dudevaut in 

 male attire. 



M. Eugene Delacroix will not assuredly take ultimately anything 

 like the rank his more enthusiastic admirers claim for him ; but he is 

 a man of great mental power, and that he always impresses on his 

 works : and his influence on contemporary French art has unquestion- 

 ably been very great What most characterises his paintings is a 

 certain impetuous energy of style, evident alike in the full though 

 often inaccurate drawing as though bis fiery temperament would not 

 permit him to stay to correct the freedom of composition often pro- 

 ducing very striking but not seldom harsh and ungainly effects ; the 

 vivid bnt frequently inharmonious colouring; the crude though decided 

 light and shade ; and the rough rapid mode of execution. He paints 

 in a free bold manner, with a firm touch, occasionally loading his 

 canvas with colour ; and he shows a daring neglect of minute detail 

 singularly at variance with the mincing stroke and elaborate finish 

 affected by our rising historical and genre painters. His admirers 

 compare him with Paolo Veronese. He himself is an ardent admirer 

 of that great master, bnt he turns with more affection to Rubens and 

 our own Constable whose influence on the present race of French 

 painters is more considerable than is supposed and we should be 

 dtspowd to say, if we were required to indicate his models, that whilst 

 he retains a very decided orginality of conception, he may be regarded 

 as far as the mere technicalities of art are concerned, as a French com- 

 pound of the colour of Rubens with the impasto of Constable : but 

 he falls far thort of the voluptuous richness of the one and the fresh- 

 ness of the other. 



M. Delacroix has made several lithographic drawings, and written 

 a few characteristic papers on pointing in the ' Revue des Deux Mondes.' 

 (I'lancbe, Portrait* da Artiiti Contemporaina , Diet. Jliog. Gen.; 

 Art- Journal, Nov. 1848; *c.) 



1'KLAMBRE, JEAN-BAPTISTE-JOSEPH, was born at Amiens, 

 September 19, 1749. His coarse of study was at the gymnasium of 

 his native town. His excellent disposition, great perseverance, and 

 extraordinary memory, early attracted the notice of bis teacher in the 

 college, the poet 1'AbtxS Delisle; and the friendship commenced 

 between Delisle and Delambre, while they stood in the relation of 

 preceptor and pupil, was continued unabated during the renmitu'nf; 

 part of Delisle's life; and Delambre u<ed to express his obligations to 

 that eminent man with great feeling to the latest period of his life. 



IvUmbre was desirous of pursuing his studies in Paris, but Ms 

 pecuniary means were inadequate to the expenses in which he would 

 be necessarily involved by such a course. The Influence of Delisle 

 however procured for him an exhibition to one of the colleges which 

 was in the gift of his native town, and which it has been commonly 

 said was first founded by one of Delambre's own family. The time 

 daring which he was entitled to hold it having expired, and his family 

 being unable to furnish him the requisite assistance to prolong the 

 period of his studies, he was compelled to adopt some meant of sup- 

 porting himself. After more than a year of disappointment, indecision, 

 and privation, he undertook the occupation of translating foreign works 

 b ; and many such translations from the Latin, Creek, 

 luli in, and English writers were executed by him during the first 

 fifteen years after be left college. In addition to this employment he 

 gave lessons in languages to private pupils; and by the combined 

 emolument* of these labours he was not only able to supply bin small 

 personal want*, but to make an excellent collection of the best author* 

 in the several languages which be studied. 



The parsimonious views of parents on the subject of education have 

 been witnessed by every one whose life ban been devoted to instruction, 

 under circumstances similar to those of Delambre. Their continual 

 importunity to men eminent in some one pursuit, whom they have 

 employed, to undertake others with which they have little or no 

 acquaintance, and this for the sake of diminishing the expense of 

 education, is proverbial. It was this continual application to Delambre, 

 who was distinguished both in the philological and philosophical 

 departments of language, to teach mathematics, which induced him 

 at the age of twenty-five to enter upon the study of the exact sciences. 

 Most men would have been soon wearied of a pursuit so undertaken ; 

 and this would have been the case with Delambre, had his mental 

 discipline been merely that of exercising the memory, which is unfor- 

 tunately too much the tendency of the exclusive study of languages. 

 Order and perseverance were distinguishing characters of Delambra's 

 mind ; and having from professional motives entered on the study of 

 mathematics, and thereby become attached to their pur.-mit, he deter- 

 mined to pursue a regular course of study in these sciences. )!< 

 entered the astronomical class of the College of France under Lalande, 

 but not till he had cart-fully read the works of his master, and mode 

 many notes upon them, amounting almost to a commentary. 



On one occasion, shortly after he joined the class, a passage from 

 Aratus was required, which Delambre instantly supplied from memory. 

 Lalande, ever olive to the importance of astronomical history, was 

 immediately interested in Delambre ; and it is probable that to this 

 circumstance much of the future fame and labours of Delambre are to 

 be attributed, as Lalande became immediately his friend, and hence- 

 forth considered Delambre as his fellow-labourer. Many of the most 

 complicated calculations of Lalande were actually performed by 

 Delambre ; but though our author probably entered upon much of this 

 drudgery for pecuniary considerations, he has given ample proof that 

 the labour was far from a disagreeable one to him, by the tables which 

 he himself subsequently published in later life. 



J luring a short residence at Compicgnc, which he made while he 

 was a professed teacher of languages, he appears to have paid some 

 attention to plane-astronomy ; and when he formed a friendship with 

 Lalande, M. Dassy, in whose family Delambre was domiciled as tutor 

 to his sons, was prevailed on by the astronomer to fit up a small 

 observatory for his use. In this Delambm acquired some skill iu the 

 manipulation of his instruments, and also in the management of the 

 formula which are used in the particular classes of data that the 

 structure of instruments enables us to obtain. He then determined 

 to devote his life to astronomy and its history. The learning requi-it,- 

 for the history of astronomy ho had already obtained, though he hod 

 probably at this time read comparatively fow of the book-, ami mm.- 

 of the manuscripts, which so arduous a task entailed upon him ; \\hil t 

 of the incessant labour required by the study of astronomy as a t 

 he had possibly little idea, and of the skill which his future practice 

 gave him his share was also very small. His ardour and perseverance 

 however surmounted all the obstacles that opposed his progress ; and 

 never did any man more completely illustrate the trite proverb, ' labor 

 omuia viucit,' than Delambre. 



When in 1781 the discovery of the planet Herschel was exciting the 

 deep attention of astronomers, Delambro undertook the formation of 

 tables of its motion, being probably urged to this by the Academy of 

 Sciences having proposed the determination of its orbit as the prize 

 of the year. Tiiat prize was awarded to Delambre. He then undertook 

 the construction of his solar tables, as well as tables of the motions of 

 Jupiter and Saturn. Shortly afterwards he commenced hi* tables of 

 the eclipses of Jupiter, which occupied him some years. When at a 

 sitting of the Academy Laplace communicated to that body the results 

 of his researches on the inequalities of Jupiter and Saturn, Delambre 

 determined on constructing complete tables of the motions of those 

 two planets, founded on those results, but more especially of those of 

 Jupiter. The utility of such tables to the navu-utor was & strong 

 inducement to this undertaking, which he entered upon with great 

 ardour, and completed in an almost incredibly short period, when we 

 consider the great labour which they involved. 1! tables 



were presented to the Academy in 1792, 03 a competing paper for the 

 prize on that subject which had been offered the preceding year but 

 he bad been for several years engaged in their calculation. It is 

 iudeed very probable that the prize was offered *> induce him to 

 complete them, as it was well known that he wai engaged in the 

 preparation of such tables. Such indee.1 i< well known to bo the 

 general practice of that body ; and though it has occasionally done 

 good, In bringing to a completion researches that might not so soon 

 have been completed, it does this mischief that it almost cuts off all 

 competition, and inevitably gives the prize to a single candidate, by 

 allowing him the advantage of a long previous preparation for it. \Vu 

 cannot disapprove of the adjudication on this occision, as I '.-I. 

 labours well merited the distinction ; but we do not think the ; 

 practice calculated on the whole to do other than give dclat to the 

 members of the Institute themselves or their immediate friends. 



Wh'-n the project of fixing a standard of length wai acceded to by 

 the governments of France and England, Delambre and Mcchain were 

 appointed to carry it Into execution on the part of the former govern- 

 ment, by measuring the arc from Dunkirk to Barcelona. This laborious 

 undertaking was carried on during the horrors of the French revolution, 



