Artwork
Le Sommeil du lion
Le Sommeil du lion is an ink print by the Romanticist artist Louis-Candide Boulanger. It dates from 1836 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
- Inscription
- Inscribed:lower right in image: Louis Boulanger; across center below image: LE SOMMEIL DU LION; by later hand, lower left in graphite: B21; by later hand, lower right in graphite: 2nd state -5-/10
About this work
Overview
Louis‑Candide Boulanger’s 1836 lithograph Le Sommeil du lion presents a nocturnal scene in which a lion lies curled, its head tucked between its forepaws. A diminutive, hooded figure stands on a crag nearby, clutching a staff, while the surrounding rock and sky are rendered in stark, turbulent tones that heighten the work’s dramatic atmosphere.
Subject & Meaning
The title foregrounds the sleeping lion as the central motif, inviting contemplation of the animal’s vulnerable repose. The cloaked attendant, positioned above the beast, may function as a guardian or observer, a common Romantic trope that juxtaposes human presence with untamed nature to suggest a contemplative relationship between mankind and the wild.
Technique & Style
Executed in lithography on wove paper, the image relies on bold, black‑and‑white contrasts. Boulrier employs vigorous, swirling lines to suggest the roughness of the cliff and the darkness beyond, while the lion’s fur is delineated with finer, more controlled strokes, illustrating the artist’s command of the medium to evoke both texture and mood.
History & Provenance
Created during Boulanger’s mature period, the print aligns with his broader output of religious, allegorical, and genre subjects. It was produced in the early years of French Romanticism, a time when artists increasingly explored dramatic, emotive subjects through printmaking, allowing wider dissemination of such works.
Context
The lithograph reflects the Romantic fascination with powerful natural forces and the sublime. By pairing a majestic animal with a solitary human figure against a turbulent backdrop, Boulanger engages contemporary debates about humanity’s place within an untamed world, echoing the era’s literary and artistic preoccupations with awe and melancholy.
Own this work as a print
Artist & collection
Artist
Louis Candide Boulanger (1806 – 1867) was a French Romantic painter, pastellist, lithographer and a poet, known for his religious and allegorical subjects, portraits, genre scenes.
