Autograph letter signed by Eugène Delacroix, with autograh date "29 December 1856", one and a half pages on a bifolium, with usual folds. 

A precious letter by Delacroix to his celebrated colleague, who laid out the squares, avenues, and gardens of the capital while the painter adorned its ceilings.

Delacroix here addresses the architect responsible for the embellishment of the Champs-Élysées, the Place de la Concorde, and the Avenue de l'Étoile. As architect to the City of Paris and to the Government, he who drew up the plans for the vast renovations in the Bois de Boulogne and its two lakes. He moved within the painter's circle (his name appears in Delacroix's Journal) and had been, since 1853, a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts: the very institution to which Delacroix had sought election seven times, opposed each time by Ingres. Success came only days after this letter: Delacroix was elected to the most-coveted Institut on 10 January 1857, to the seat left vacant by painter Paul Delaroche.

"It is a month now since I have been suffering from a cold that has degenerated into an inflammation of the throat, and for about twelve days I have been strictly confined indoors for fear of the outside cold. I deeply regret not having been able, before this moment, to come and speak with you regarding my candidacy. I hope, however, to be able to go out by the end of this week or the beginning of next: but in the meantime I take the liberty of commending myself to the kindness and obligingness you have so kindly shown me [...] E. Delacroix