Arab Horseman Attacked by a Lion

1849–50

Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798–1863)

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.

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

Artist: Eugène Delacroix
Title: Arab Horseman Attacked by a Lion
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.: 1849–1850
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 43.9 × 38.1 cm (17 1/4 × 15 in.); Framed: 63.9 × 55.3 × 8.3 cm (25 1/8 × 21 3/4 × 3 1/4 in.)
Credit Line: Potter Palmer Collection
Reference Number: 1922.403
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/81503/manifest.json

Théophile Silvestre, Histoire des artistes vivants français et étrangers: Etudes d’après nature (Paris: E. Blanchard, 1857), p. 82.
Amédée Cantaloube, Eugène Delacroix, l’homme et l’artiste, ses amis et ses critiques (Paris: Dentu, 1864), p. 27.
Adolphe Moreau, E. Delacroix et son œuvre (Paris: Librairie des bibliophiles, 1873), pp. 104 no. 55, 129 no. 57, 150 no. 46, 279.
Alfred Robaut, L’Œuvre complet de Eugène Delacroix (Paris: Charavay Frères, 1885), p. 283, no. 1067 (ill.).
“Art Notes,” The Critic: a Weekly Review of Literature and the Arts 17, 530 (1892), p. 230.
Hippolyte Mireur, Dictionnaire des ventes d’art faites en France et à l’Etranger pendant les XVIIIme & XIXme siècles, vol. 2 (Paris: Maison d’Editions d’oeuvres artistiques, 1911), p. 422.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1925), p. 133, no. 819.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Guide to the Paintings in the Permanent Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1932), p. 150.
“The Rearrangement of the Painting Galleries,” Bulletin of the Art Institute of Chicago 27, 7 (1933), p. 115 (ill.).
Agnes Mongan and Paul J. Sachs, Drawings in the Fogg Museum of Art, vol. 1 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1940), under no. 684.
Art Institute of Chicago, Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago: Art Institute of Chicago, 1961), pp. 122–23.
Lucien Rudrauf, “De la bête à l’ange: les étapes de la lutte vitale dans la pensée et l’art d’Eugène Delacroix,” Acta Historiae Artium Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae 9 (1963), p. 330, fig. 18.
René Huyghe, Delacroix (London: Thames & Hudson, 1963), p. 408, pl. XLVII.
Frank Anderson Trapp, The Attainment of Delacroix (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press, 1970), pp. 209, pl. XIX.
Pierre Georgel and Luigina Rossi Bortolatto, Tout l’œuvre peint de Delacroix (Paris: Flammarion, 1975), p. 119, no. 538 (ill.).
John D. Morse, Old Master paintings in North America (New York: Abbeville Press, 1979), p. 100.
Maurice Sérullaz, Delacroix (Paris: Fernand Nathan, 1981), p. 191, cat. 308 (ill.).
Lee Johnson, The Paintings of Eugène Delacroix: A Critical Catalogue, vol. 3 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1986), vol. 1, p. 14–15, cat. 181; vol. 4, pl. 13.
Donald A. Rosenthal, Orientalism: The Near East in French Painting, 1800–1880, exh. cat. (Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y., 1982), pp. 65–66.
Lee Johnson, “The Art of Delacroix,” in Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863): Paintings, Drawings, and Prints from North American Collections (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991), p. 26.
Art Institute of Chicago, Treasures of 19th– and 20th–Century Painting: The Art Institute of Chicago (New York: Abbeville Press, 1993), p. 28 (ill.).
Alain Daguerre De Hureaux, Delacroix (Paris: Hazan, 1993), p. 322.
Sébastien Allard and Côme Fabre, ed. Delacroix, exh. cat. (Louvre/Hazan, 2018), pp.
202-203, cat. 131 (ill), 208, 429.
Jennifer R. Henneman, ed., Near East to Far West: Fictions of French and American Colonialism. exh. cat. (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2023), 52 cat. 14, 272.

Paris, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Œuvres d’Eugène Delacroix, 1864, cat. 93.
Paris, École Nationale des Beaux-Arts, Exposition Eugène Delacroix, March 6–April 15, 1885, cat. 20.
Art Institute of Chicago, Loan Exhibition of Paintings, Watercolors, Drawings and Prints by Eugène Delacroix 1798–1863, March 20–April 20, 1930, cat. 30.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1933, cat. 243.
Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1934, cat. 186.
Cambridge, Massachusetts, Fogg Museum of Art, The Horse: Its Significance in Art, April 20–May 21, 1938, cat. 12.
New York, M. Knoedler and Company, Gros – Géricault – Delacroix, November 21–December 10, 1938, cat. 49; traveled to Art Institute of Chicago, December 15, 1938–January 15, 1939.
Portland Museum of Art, Eugène Delacroix, January 15–February 14, 1940, no cat.
Arts Club of Chicago, Origins of Modern Art, April 2–30, 1940, cat. 11.
Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, Pendulum Swing from Classic To Romantic in French Painting, January 25–February 21, 1942, no cat. no.
Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Nineteenth Century French Painting, January 18–February 20, 1944, cat. 1.
New York, Wildenstein & Co., Eugène Delacroix 1798-1863: Loan Exhibition in Aid of the Quaker Emergency Service, October 18–November 18, 1944, cat. 27.
Springfield Art Association, Illustration for Dante’s Divine Comedy, April 1945, no. cat.
Decatur Art Center, Masterpieces of European and American Art, May 4–25, 1945, cat. 5.
New York, Paul Rosenberg & Co., Delacroix and Renoir, February 16–March 13, 1948, cat. 5.
American Federation of Arts, travelling exhibition June 1948–June 1949, no cat.
Saginaw Museum, Exhibition of Nineteenth Century French Painting, December 19, 1948–January 9, 1949, cat. 8.
Carbondale, Southern Illinois University, A Festival of Fine Arts, February 26–March 10, 1956, cat. 4.
Sarasota, Ringling Museum of Art, Palmer Family Collections, February 23–March 24, 1963, cat. 10.
Paris, Louvre, Delacroix, Mar. 29-July 23, 2018; New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sep. 13, 2018-Jan. 6, 2019, cat. 131 (ill).
Denver Art Museum, Near East to Far West: Fictions of French and American Colonialism, Mar. 5-May 28, 2023, cat. 14.

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.

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

On View

Status

Department

Artist

Title

Place

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.

Medium

Dimensions

Credit Line

Reference Number

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.

Explore Further

Suggested Terms

On View

Date:

Artist:

About this artwork

Status

Department

Artist

Title

Place

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.

Medium

Dimensions

Credit Line

Reference Number

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.

Extended information about this artwork

Publication History

Exhibition History

Provenance

Share

Explore Further

Sign up for our enewsletter to receive updates.

Gallery actions

Image actions

Share

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.