Charles Michel Geoffroy and Eugène Delacroix
Medea Killing her Own Children
after 1838
Scroll
Physical Qualities
Etching and engraving, 397 × 257 mm. (15 5/8 × 10 1/8 in.)
Credit Line
Garrett Collection
Object Number
1946.112.15155
Medea holds her squirming children with one hand and a dagger with the other. Geoffroy’s print reproduces a painting by the artist Eugène Delacroix that shows the disturbing moment before she kills her children. This horrific scene occurs after her husband Jason deserts her for another woman. Medea kills their children to seek justice for her sacrifices and abandonment.
Medea, the subject of a 5th-century BCE play by Euripides, is a complicated heroine. She is empowered with typically male traits, like intelligence and a sense of vengeance, and acts contrary to societal expectations for women.
Malcolm Daniel, The Baltimore Museum of Art traveling exhibition, "Mythprints," 1981-82, circulated to Essex Community College; The Museum in the Mall, Columbia; Notre Dame Preparatory School, Towson; St. John's College, Annapolis; Salisbury State College; Washington College, Chestertown; Western Maryland College, Westminster.
Andaleeb Banta, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Women Behaving Badly: 400 Years of Power and Protest," July 18 - December 19, 2021.
Andaleeb Banta, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Women Behaving Badly: 400 Years of Power and Protest," July 18 - December 19, 2021.
The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Mythprints," exhibition brochure, 1981-82, cat. 24.
Markings: CM: Claghorn
