Arab Horseman Attacked by a Lion

Art Institute of Chicago

Arab Horseman Attacked by a Lion

Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798–1863)LinkedCulture matchlcp-ff01cec55b2b

Date
1849–50
Medium
Oil on panel
Culture
France
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Institution
Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID
81503

Man and beast intertwine to form a single writhing body in this emotionally charged depiction of a lion attacking a horse and its rider. Through short, energetic brushstrokes and carefully manipulated contrasts of light and shadow, Eugène Delacroix imbued this imagined scene with action and drama. While many artists of the period explored the theme of man versus nature, depictions of Arab men entangled with wild animals served a specific propagandistic function, justifying the brutality of French colonial rule by depicting its subjects as violent and inhuman.

View at Art Institute of Chicago ↗

The authoritative record is held by Art Institute of Chicago. LinkedCulture surfaces this object and its connections; it does not alter institutional metadata.

Get printable QR codes

Open QR codes for this object page and the museum record. They stay collapsed until needed.

Open this page QR destination: https://linkedculture.org/q/q1.RVjSRZMw_w8-z4sA.wyaxcE0v25dOPFhhrbmcv80cn2yrNrzfu-K_2x4XF3kzMW5-gJYCmh8-PnRby4bfDN_XfRblBU7oqmb9ZA-KwBa-AbpBNnmCstcLGerwdgzQ87XFuJJXD589mjSuwbDhz-xp78bxwbd88QxrV9KGY5N2ZQhNvAnYmAwzaVu1ZWQx5QjRWdQcIeSpWne_XXcFL_y-aGpd2Y5DIHl5h-B5rxerc9phlf4Js1vh39JkhIQVSjdQFfgvKznr1ITa8wlmSSRVPjiOAJP6RDhX5COiCYlYSee at Art Institute of Chicago QR destination: https://linkedculture.org/q/q1.ryHAxpUbY9DE8KDW.wkcBCc5uR20xrkR-0G3OOHd6bSZUkvlAB7GZrlShgVq7aFqIQFgT2v4LY6AmfDSmANEVRezJYEEH3JFAacUTVxL4HqTJ67Yr6YXPMwPSUFn8-tqvfBKkZErNVrzH8ITxEv3cW1Rcc7OZJAX8OPVfAc9QZpupV10oyfM4c3hnv1mnZEIv23eHDjerIjaJwFkE3xaFDNPo6WPxnaKf8WIQqFPEObEBhnZqVDch-kCFSXA7XjnkjfNVL2OZwOyWruq9fdI896A7a3E-5kPE5xbxAQ
Open this page
See at Art Institute of Chicago

Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line
Potter Palmer Collection
Provenance
Baron Michel de Trétaigne, by 1864 [lent by him to Paris 1864]; his sale Hôtel Drouot, Paris, February 19, 1872, lot 19 as Cavalier arabe attaqué par un lion for 17,000 francs [price according to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague]. Febvre [according to Moreau 1873, Febvre purchased the painting from the Trétaigne sale]. Boucheron, by 1885 [lent to Paris 1885]. R. Austin Robertson (New York?), by 1892; his estate sale American Art Association, New York, April 8, 1892, lot 127 as Arab cavalier attacked by a Lion for $6,350 to Potter Palmer [price according to an annotated copy of the sale catalogue in the American Antiquarian Society, Worcester, Massachusetts; buyer according to The Critic 1892]; Potter Palmer (died 1902), Chicago; his widow, Bertha Honoré Palmer (died 1918); by descent to their sons Honoré and Potter Palmer; given to the Art Institute, 1922.

Linked open data

Authority identifiers that link this record into the wider web of cultural data — stable references you can follow to the source.

Object type
AAT300033618

Related across collections

Semantically similar works from Art Institute of Chicago and other institutions.