On March 15, 1493 Christo-pher Columbus returned to Spain after his first voyage to the New World Even before it transpired, the voyage sparked the imaginations of many, notably King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, depicted in the painting here by Eugene Delacroix of 1839 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_columbus). His return from his "discovery" of a hitherto unknown part of the world, specifically the Bahamas, further inspired not only the Spanish monarchs but also many other explorers. Having hoped to find a route to India ("the Indies" becoming the misleading label for the lands he happened upon), Columbus brought back not the lucrative spices that were the valued commodity he sought, but instead examples of the gold artifacts and exploitable human resources he found.
The Toledo Museum of Art acquired this picture in 1939, an event that attracted the attention of the UP and that was published in at least one distant newspaper (http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1977&dat=19390223&id=WpI0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=I6sFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4890,4931380).
Somewhat atypical of the loose, dramatic brushwork and dramatic and exotic subject matter for which he was most famous, The Return of Christopher Columbus is nonetheless Romantic in its luminous color and theatrical depiction of the faraway and glamorous. Its pendant, Christopher Columbus and His Son At La Rabida, at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, is a deliberately more restrained work depicting the uncertainty and hardship that preceded the uncertain voyage http://www.nga.gov/collection/pdf/gg93en.pdf.)
