Eugène Delacroix
French, 1798­1863
Lion Hunt
1860/61
Oil on canvas
76.5 x 98.5 cm
Potter Palmer Collection, 1922.404

Delacroix loved to paint exotic scenes, especially of North Africa, where he went on a diplomatic mission as a young artist. He sketched lions in Africa, and later often visited the Paris zoo to study and draw them.

Delacroix uses color dramatically. The darkness of the clouds is threatening, and the repeated reds are fierce. The high drama of this scene is strengthened because of the way the artist hooks the figures together. See how the man in the white cloak thrusts his lance into the lion, who claws the horse, whose thrashing legs almost strike the next man, and so on around the picture?