Between 1814 and 1822, the young Eugène Delacroix produced sixteen political cartoons, the first and last of his career. They have been listed among his oeuvre since it was first catalogued, but they seem to have been something of an embarrassment to Delacroix scholars, who generally have mentioned them only in passing and without admiration. The most comprehensive article on the satirical cartoons, published in 1930, is entitled—significantly—“Eugène Delacroix’s Youthful Sins.” Yet Nina Maria Athanassoglou-Kallmyer, the author of the first major study devoted to this problematic body of work, takes quite a different view, arguing for the importance of the caricatures within Delacroix’s evolution, however atypical they may seem to be on first acquaintance.

Delacroix probably made the cartoons chiefly in order to earn much-needed money when he was an aspiring art student and, slightly later, a fledgling painter just beginning to exhibit ambitious efforts. The end of his career as a political cartoonist, in fact, corresponds precisely with his success at the Salon of 1822, when the Barque of Dante was purchased by the State for 2,000francs; this solved his financial difficulties for the moment and allowed him to concentrate exclusively on being a “serious painter.” Miss Athanassoglou suggests that Delacroix may have stopped publishing cartoons because he felt that it was unsuitable once he began to be recognized for his Salon submissions. Yet, far from disavowing his early caricatures as “youthful sins,” he insisted that they be included in the comprehensive catalogue of his graphic