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Studies of a Rearing Horse Attacked by a Lion and a Lion Wrestling with a Serpent

1830s
Not on view
The turbulent forms of the animals featured on this sheet show Delacroix’s imagination at work in ink. Animal attacks and hunts were a constant theme in his work from 1828 onward. His firsthand experiences witnessing clashes between creatures combined with his study of works by other artists, such as the dramatic seventeenth-century hunts of Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens, enabled him to invent violent confrontations with his pen. The repetition of the entangled animals produces an effect aptly compared to "time-stopped motion" and gives a sense of successive moments in the writhing struggle.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Studies of a Rearing Horse Attacked by a Lion and a Lion Wrestling with a Serpent
  • Artist: Eugène Delacroix (French, Charenton-Saint-Maurice 1798–1863 Paris)
  • Date: 1830s
  • Medium: Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, on writing paper
  • Dimensions: sheet: 6 1/4 x 5 3/8 in. (13.6 x 15.9 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Gift from the Karen B. Cohen Collection of Eugène Delacroix, in honor of Philippe de Montebello, 2013
  • Object Number: 2013.1135.42
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Studies of Horses, Eugène Delacroix French, Graphite and traces of brown ink on laid paper
Studies of Horses
Eugène Delacroix
A Bearded Man, Standing, and a Classical Head, Eugène Delacroix French, Pen and brown ink on tracing paper (mounted on heavy wove paper)
A Bearded Man, Standing, and a Classical Head
Eugène Delacroix
1815–63
Les Français peints par eux-mêmes encyclopédie morale du dix-neuvième siècle. Paris, L. Curmer, 1840-1842.
Eugène Delacroix
19th century
La Pietà, Eugène Delacroix French, Etching on chine collé; second state of two
La Pietà
Multiple artists/makers
1852
Studies of a Goat, Eugène Delacroix French, Graphite on wove paper
Studies of a Goat
Eugène Delacroix
1798–1863

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