Apotheose von Delacroix

Cézanne worshipped Delacroix his whole life, and for years he dreamed of painting him a proper tribute. This small oil is as far as he got. Delacroix, who had died in 1863, floats up naked into the clouds, carried by angels, one of them lifting his brushes and palette toward heaven. Below, a half circle of living painters looks up. You can pick out Pissarro at his easel and Monet in a pointed hat, with Cézanne himself off to the side, a stick in his hand and a dog at his feet, and the collector Victor Chocquet, who bought both Delacroix and Cézanne, standing under a tree. He never finished it. It hangs, still sketchy and thin, in his home town of Aix.