Art Institute of Chicago

Lion Hunt

Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798–1863)

Date

1860–61

Medium

Oil on canvas

Culture

France

Department

Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

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 Arab world. Having never witnessed a lion hunt, Delacroix skillfully synthesized studies of landscapes, Islamic costume, and zoo animals to bring this narrative to life with theatrical intensity.

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