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A Hunter Stalking a Lion in the Mountains of North Africa

1849
Not on view
Delacroix’s six-month voyage to North Africa in 1832—facilitated by the French invasion of Algeria—fueled his imagination for the remainder of his career. This signed, finished pastel, a rarity in the artist’s oeuvre, stages a suspenseful scene in a landscape inspired by the Atlas Mountains. In the foreground, a hunter crouches on a rocky outcrop. With poised tension, he watches a lion, who appears ready to disappear over the ridge in the distance at any moment. The echo between their four-legged postures invites comparison between man and his prey. The expressive pose as well as the execution, which integrated Delacroix’s technique as a draftsman with painterly layering of color, surely appealed to the former owner of this work, the artist Edgar Degas.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: A Hunter Stalking a Lion in the Mountains of North Africa
  • Artist: Eugène Delacroix (French, Charenton-Saint-Maurice 1798–1863 Paris)
  • Date: 1849
  • Medium: Pastel and charcoal
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 9 7/16 × 12 1/4 in. (24 × 31.1 cm)
  • Classification: Drawings
  • Credit Line: Purchase, The Derald H. Ruttenberg Foundation Gift, in honor of Nadine M. Orenstein, Karen B. Cohen Fund, and C. Jay Moorhead Foundation Gift, 2023
  • Object Number: 2023.476
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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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