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There are very few times in the Jewish tradition when a hero can make the statement and he has seen the Face of God. Jacob’s encounter with the angel in the 32nd chapter of Genesis is one such occasion.

“And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.”

This is a reproduction of a Biblical masterpiece by Eugene Delacroix, “Jacob Wrestling the Angel”. It was painted between 1857 and 1861 and is in the church of Saint Sulpice in Paris. It is a huge work measuring over 24 feet tall and more than 16 feet wide. It is a work within a tradition as others have painted the same theme: Rembrandt in 1659 and Gustave Dore in 1855. Alexander Leloir in 1865 and Paul Gaugin in 1888 continued the tradition.

Eugene Delacroix was a leading French Romanticist of the Nineteenth Century. He began his training as a Neo-classicist in 1815 when aged seventeen. He became a sensation seven years later and in 1824 enjoyed a great success with his “Massacre at Chios”. In 1830 he produced his most famous painting, “Liberty leading the People”, which definitely sets the artist apart from Neoclassicism. The work also set Delacroix apart from other Romanticist painters in that he thought of his figures as archetypal. Therefore Liberty is personified as a female figure leading Parisians in their fight. The French government bought the painting but removed it from public view because it was deemed inflammatory. It was brought out nineteen years later by the president of the 2nd French Republic, Louis Napoleon.

Delacroix was part of a diplomatic mission to Morocco in 1832 and this experience led to his production of over a hundred paintings and provided a rich impetus for Orientalism. From 1833 to 1861 he was continually at work on large murals in the interior spaces of Salon du Roi, Palais Bourbon, Palais du Luxembourg, the church of St. Denis du Saint Sacrement, the Louvre and the Chapelle des Agnes at St. Sulpice. He was a founder of the National Society of Beaux-Arts and died shortly thereafter in 1863.