Boabdil's Farewell to Granada

In January 1492 Granada surrendered to Ferdinand and Isabella, and Boabdil, the last Nasrid ruler of the city, went into exile. Spanish legend placed his farewell on a mountain pass south of Granada, still called the Moor's Sigh, where he is said to have turned for one last look and wept. Alfred Dehodencq built his canvas around a turn of that kind. The king twists back in the saddle with his eyes raised, while his horse and the servant walking at its head keep moving forward over the rocky ground. The picture went to the Salon of 1869, where the French state bought it from the artist for the museum in Roubaix. From 1940 it hung in Tourcoing, which it left only in 1984. The Musée d'Orsay also keeps a sheet of his studies for the figures.