The joy of Delacroix

The Sackler Museum exhibition also features Delacroix's animal prints, which exude his respect for nature and admiration of life.

The dynamics he noticed while watching animals closely also inspired him when he worked with other subjects, such as landscapes and portraits.

"He (Delacroix) was not a vain artist. Almost everything he painted has a moral and/or literary theme," Stone says.

"He lived a remarkably simple life. For the great public commissions he did for the French state, he did mostly for free, charging only for paints and the service of his assistants.

"He adored past history. When he first visited North Africa, he said it was like being in the world of Homer (the Greek poet). He read very widely. And he loved music. Chopin was a good friend of his. For me, Delacroix is the most 'complete' artist I know of in Western civilization."

Dong Qiang, a professor of French language and literature of Peking University, says audiences will not only discover Delacroix's considerable attention to British and German literature at the exhibition but also will see deepening exchanges among different countries in the 19th century.

Minstrel of the 19th Century has been the 13th exhibition of prints that Stone had curated at the Sackler Museum. It also shows dozens of prints by other Western artists that Stone acquired for the museum in 2019.

They include works by Goya and Marc Chagall, as well as 18th-century pieces that offer hand-colored city views of China, France, Italy and Turkey.

"Of my 13 exhibitions for the Sackler Museum, this one is my favorite," Stone says.