Artwork
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel is an oil painting by the French Romanticist artist Eugène Delacroix. It dates from 1850 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The painting depicts the Old Testament episode of Jacob wrestling with the angel, a confrontation drawn from the Book of Genesis (32:22–32).
The painting depicts the Old Testament episode of Jacob wrestling with the angel, a confrontation drawn from the Book of Genesis (32:22–32). In this nocturnal encounter, the patriarch Jacob grapples with a divine or angelic being through the night, ultimately receiving a blessing and the new name "Israel," signifying his struggle with God. The subject belongs to the broader tradition of religious art, and Delacroix's treatment of the biblical narrative emphasizes its dramatic and spiritual intensity.
The work's iconography centers on the physical and metaphysical struggle between human and divine, a theme that resonated with Romantic-era interest in mystical, transformative experience. As a religious painting, it represents the moment of Jacob's election and the founding myth of the Israelites, while also functioning as an allegory of perseverance, faith, and the costly encounter with the sacred.
Technique & Style
Eugène Delacroix executed Jacob Wrestling with the Angel in 1850 using oil paint. The work is distinct in its material construction, combining oil paint with tracing paper on a canvas support. The painting measures 56.5 by 40.6 cm. Stylistically, the artwork belongs to the genre of religious art, depicting the biblical subject of Jacob wrestling with the angel.
History & Provenance
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel is an 1850 oil painting by Eugène Delacroix depicting the biblical scene of Jacob contending with a divine being. The work entered the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of the Karen B. Cohen Collection and has remained in that institutional custody since acquisition. It was featured in the 1998 exhibition Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863): Paintings, Drawings, and Prints from North American Collections and later included in Romanticism and the School of Nature: Nineteenth-Century Drawings and Paintings from the Karen B. Cohen Collection.
The painting measures 56.5 cm in height by 40.6 cm in width and is executed in oil paint on canvas with underlying tracing paper. Its subject is drawn from the narrative of Jacob wrestling with the angel, a moment interpreted as symbolic of spiritual struggle.
Jacob Wrestling with the Angel is held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art as part of the Karen B. Cohen Collection. The painting has been included in at least two documented exhibitions. It was displayed in Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863): Paintings, Drawings, and Prints from North American Collections, as well as Romanticism and the School of Nature: Nineteenth-Century Drawings and Paintings from the Karen B. Cohen Collection.
Overview
Eugène Delacroix’s oil painting Jacob Wrestling with the Angel, executed circa 1850, presents a nocturnal tableau of biblical struggle. The canvas, now part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection, captures a moment of intense physical and spiritual conflict, rendered in the dramatic language of French Romanticism.
Context
The composition aligns with Romanticism’s fascination with heroic struggle and the sublime. By choosing a biblical confrontation, Delacroix taps into contemporary debates about faith, destiny, and human agency, while his dynamic treatment of light and shadow mirrors the era’s broader shift toward expressive, emotive visual storytelling.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( DEL-ə-krwah, -KRWAH; French:; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.
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