The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan

1826

Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798–1863)

For this frenetic scene, Eugène Delacroix took inspiration from “The Giaour,” a poem in a popular series of romantic tales by the celebrated English poet Lord Byron. Giaour is a derogatory Turkish word for a Christian or non-Muslim applied here to the warrior at left clad in swirling white drapery. Amid a violent struggle, the Giaour is avenging the death of his lover at the hands of his opponent. Delacroix mirrored the two central figures and their horses as the Giaour is about to strike the fatal blow against the faceless Turk Hassan. The artist’s mastery of color is exemplified by his use of shimmering primary hues, while the loose handling of paint creates the sense of dynamism Delacroix was so capable of executing.

This painting reflects Delacroix’s sustained engagement with Orientalism, the artistic representation of non-European people and places, especially North Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Delacroix was among the first European artists to travel to Africa when he visited Morocco in 1832, shortly after he completed this painting. Widespread in the nineteenth century, Orientalism was regularly leveraged to reinforce French colonial enterprises through often fantastical, violent, or erotic depictions of the customs and cultures of faraway locales.

Status: On View, Gallery 220
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Eugène Delacroix
Title: The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan
Place: France (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1826
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 59.6 × 73.4 cm (23 1/2 × 28 7/8 in.); Framed: 87.4 × 101.3 cm (34 3/8 × 39 7/8 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Bertha Palmer Thorne, Rose Movius Palmer, Mr. and Mrs. Arthur M. Wood, and Mr. and Mrs. Gordon Palmer
Reference Number: 1962.966
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/110663/manifest.json

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.