E. J. (Etienne Jean) Delécluze

Born in Paris in 1781, Étienne-Jean Delécluze was a French painter, writer, and art critic. He studied in the studio of Jacques-Louis David, one of the defining artists of the neoclassical era, and that early training shaped the way he thought and wrote about art for the rest of his life.

Although he began as a painter, he became better known as a critic and man of letters. He wrote on art and cultural life for French journals and newspapers, and he is remembered for clear, thoughtful commentary as well as for memoir-like writing that preserved details about David, his circle, and the artistic world of his time.

For listeners interested in the world behind nineteenth-century French art, Delécluze offers something special: the perspective of someone who was both participant and witness. His writings help bring to life the studios, debates, and personalities that shaped French painting after the Revolution.