The Good Samaritan (1849)

The man from Samaria puts the stranded traveller on his horse. Other passers-by had let the robbed man lay on the road - even though they were supposed to be more pious than the Samaritan.

Delacroix here painted the figures as if he were Rubens: muscular and colourful. His own fast brushstroke can easily be recognized.

Vincent van Gogh would copy this work in 1890: he applied his own style and mirrored the image. Delacroix himself may have been insprired by the version by the 17th century Italian baroque artist Domenico Fetti (below).