Lion Hunt
1860–61
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
76.5 × 98.5 cm (30 × 38 1/2 in.); Framed: 105.5 × 125.8 cm (41 1/2 × 49 1/2 in.)
Classification
painting
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
81505
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
In 1832 Eugène Delacroix joined a diplomatic envoy to French-colonized Algeria. The sights and experiences from this six-month journey fueled the rest of his career, lending his canvases an illusion of accuracy that his less-traveled competitors lacked. The artist expressed in his journals from abroad his admiration for Arab culture, even characterizing it as superior to that of post-revolutionary France. Nevertheless, in paintings like this he catered to violent European fantasies about the Ara...
About the Artist
Eugène Delacroix · 1798–1863
Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) stands as the defining figure of French Romanticism and a pivotal bridge to modernism. Born in Charenton-Saint-Maurice near Paris, he came from distinguished lineage—his mother descended from the prestigious Oeben-Riesener furniture dynasty, while persistent speculation suggested the statesman Talleyrand may have been his biological father, a theory supported by physic...