Ferdinand-Victor-Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)

Images of soldiers appear throughout Delacroix's oeuvre. Some were derived from literary or historical characters. Others were observed from life -- either through firsthand experience from his travels abroad, or through models dressed in costume in his studio. His 1832 trip to North Africa inspired his interest in exotic subjects, and Berber guards were joined by Greek Souliots and Albanian soldiers in his drawings. This watercolor depicts two Albanian soldiers who were part of the Ottoman Empire at the time.