Lioness Tearing at the Chest of an Arab

1849·Soft ground etching and roulette on cream chine, laid down on white wove paper·Plate: 21.2 × 28.1 cm (8 3/8 × 11 1/8 in.); Sheet: 35 × 49 cm (13 13/16 × 19 5/16 in.)

<p>Delacroix’s Romantic fascination with the Oriental other and the savagery of nature comes to the fore in this delicate etching in which a turbaned Arab becomes a lioness’s prey. Pinioned by the lion’s mighty paws, the man no longer struggles but resigns himself to being rent asunder. The man’s eyes are in shadow while the animal’s are wide and fierce, a contrast underscoring the violence and the intimacy of the kill. Details such as the single slipper lying near the man’s foot and the cuffed short leggings emphasize his exotic origins.</p>

Catalogue

Year: 1849
Medium: Soft ground etching and roulette on cream chine, laid down on white wove paper
Dimensions: Plate: 21.2 × 28.1 cm (8 3/8 × 11 1/8 in.); Sheet: 35 × 49 cm (13 13/16 × 19 5/16 in.)
Collection: Art Institute of Chicago
Artist: Eugene Delacroix

Artist

Eugene Delacroix

Painting

Born in 1789 in Paris, French Romantic painter Eugéne Delacroix received his early training from Pierre Guérin in a classicist vein. While that approach would have little effect on Delacroix’s ultimate artistic development, it was through this connection that he met the painter Théodore Gericault, creator of the masterwork Raft of the Medusa, 1818–19, a work for which Delacroix posed. Ultimately, Delacroix drew most of his inspiration from the plethora of art available for him to study at the Louvre. He was also exposed to a wide of array of literature, including the writing of Shakespeare, Byron, and Scott. It was those literary sources that would ultimately be the catalyst to Delacroix’s full embrace of Romanticism, despite the growing popularity of Neoclassicism.

Charenton-Saint-Maurice, France

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