About This Artwork

Eugène Delacroix
French, 1798-1863

Lion Hunt, 1860/61

Oil on canvas
30 x 38 1/2 in. (76.5 x 98.5 cm)
Inscribed at lower left: Eug. Delacroix / 1861
Potter Palmer Collection, 1922.404

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

Paris, Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Eugene Delacroix, March 6-April 16, 1885, cat. 76.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings From the Collection of Mrs. Potter Palmer, August 1910, cat. 22.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Delacroix, March 20-April 20, 1930, cat. 43.

Paris, Musée du Louvre, Exposition Eugène Delacroix, June-September 1930, cat. 191.

The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress, Exhibition of Painting and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1933, cat. 246.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1-November 1, 1934, cat. 192.

Springfield, Mass., Museum of Fine Arts, From David to Cézanne, February 9-March 10, 1935, cat. 16.

Pittsburg, Carnegie Institute, A Survey of French Painting, April 2-May 14, 1936, cat. 17.

Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University, Gericault, Delacroix, Chasseriau, Painters of the Romantic Movement, April 30-June1, 1946, no cat. no.

Buffalo, New York, Albright Art Gallery, Expressionism in American Painting, May 10–June 29, 1952, cat. 3 (ill.).

Venice, XXVIII Biennale di Venezia, May–September 1956, cat. 42.

Los Angeles, University of California –Los Angeles Art Council, French Masters From Rococo to Romanticism, March 5–April 16, 1961, no cat. no. (ill.).

Paris, Musée du Louvre, Centrenaire d’Eugéne Delacroix, May-September, 1963, cat. 521.

Edinburgh, National Gallery of Scotland, Delacroix, August 14-September 12, 1964, cat. 75, traveled to London, Royal Academy of Arts, October 1-November 8, 1964.

Stockholm, Natinalmuseum, Delacroix’ Lejonakter, October 1-December 6, 1981, cat. 28 (ill.).

Tokyo, Seibu Museum of Art, The Impressionist Tradition: Masterpieces from The Art Institute of Chicago, October 18-December 17, 1986, cat. 1 (ill.), traveled to Fukuoka Art Museum, January 5-February 2, 1986 and Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, March 4-April 13, 1986.

Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Delacroix les dernières années, April 7-July 20, 1998, cat. 23 (ill.), traveled to Philadelphia Museum of Art, September 10, 1998-January 3, 1999.

Charlottenlund/Copenhagen, Ordrupgaard, Delacroix: The Music of Painting, September 13-December 30, 2000, cat. 16 (ill.).

Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsuhe, Eugène Delacroix, November 1, 2003-February1, 2004, cat. 22 (ill.).

Publication History

Alfred Robaut, L’Oeuvre Complet de Eugene Delacroix (Paris, 1885), no. 1350.

Jean Maurice Tourneaux, Eugène Delacroix devant ses contemporains (Paris, 1886), p. 144.

Reginald Wilenski, French Painting (Boston, 1931), pl. 85, pp. 209, 212.

Journal de Eugene Delacroix, 1932, vol. 2, pp. 334, 317, 389, 402.

The Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago, 1932), p. 190.

Hans Tietze, Meisterwerks Europäischer Malerei in Amerika (Vienna, 1935), no. 265 (ill.).

Jean Cassou, Delacroix (Paris, 1947), no. 40.

Lee Johnson, “Delacroix at the Biennale,” Burlington Magazine 98 (September 1956), pp. 324–330, (ill) 329.

Giuseppe Marchiori, Delacroix alla Biennale (Venice, 1956), p. 37.

Karchiori, Delacroix alla Biennale, 1956, pp. 36, (ill.) 37.

The Art Institute of Chicago, A Brief Guide to the Collections (Chicago, 1956), pp. 32-33.

The Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago, 1961), pp. 123, (ill.) p. 244.

Jean Leymarie, French Painting: The Nineteenth Century, trans. James Emmons (Geneva and Paris, 1962), pp. 82-83.

Raymond Escholier, Eugène Delacroix (Paris, 1963), pp. 116, 117 (detail ill.).

Rene Huyghe, Delacroix, trans. Jonathon Griffin (London, 1963), pl. 348, pp. 471, 490.

Lee Johnson, Delacroix (London, 1963), p. 92.

George P. Mras, Eugène Delacroix’s Theory of Art (Princeton, 1966), p. 70, fig. 21.

John Maxon, The Art Institute of Chicago (New York, 1970), pp. 72, (ill.) 73, 280.

Frank A. Trapp, The Attainment of Delacroix (Baltimore and London, 1970), pp. 216-17, fig. 133.

John D. Morse, Paintings in North America: Over 3000 Masterpieces by 50 Great Artists (New York, 1979), p. 100 (ill.).

Per Bjurström, “Delacroix’ Lion Hunt,” in The Grace and Phillip Sanoblom Collection, ed. Ulf Abel (Stockholm, 1981), pp. 24-35.

Eve Twose Kliman, “Delacroix’s Lions and Tigers: A Link Between Man and Nature,” Art Bulletin 64, 3 (1982), p. 464, fig. 36.

Maurice Sérullaz, Dessins d’Eugene Delacroix, 1798-1863 vol. 2 (Paris, 1984), p. 222 (ill.).

Frances Weitzenhoffer, The Havemeyers: Impressionism Comes to America (New York, 1986), p. 88, pl. 32.

Lee Johnson, The Paintings of Eugène Delacroix: A Critical Catalogue vol. 3 (Oxford, 1986), no. 205, pl. 30.

Richard Brettell, French Salon Artists 1800-1900 (Chicago, 1987), pp. 32 (ill.), 33, 118.

Ownership History

Possibly sold from the artist to Vaisse for 2,500 francs [this and the following information according to Johnson 1989]. Comte d’Aquila; his sale, February 21-22, 1868, lot 7, sold for 14,505 francs. Faure, Paris, 1885 [according to Robaut 1885; see also catalogue of 1892 sale citied below]. R. Austin Robertson, New York; his estate sale, New York, American Art Association, April 7, 1892, lot 147 (ill.); sold for 13,000 francs to Mr. and Mrs. Potter Palmer, Chicago; bequeathed to the Art Institute, 1922.