Artwork
La Chasse aux lions au Maroc
La Chasse aux lions au Maroc is an oil painting by the Orientalist artist Eugène Delacroix. It dates from 1861 and is held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Orientalist iconography reduces the environment to elemental sky, sea and dunes, emphasizing the exotic and perilous setting.
The painting La Chasse aux lions au Maroc (1861) by Eugène Delacroix portrays a dramatic confrontation between Arab riders and a lion in a North African landscape. The scene, recorded in the Art Institute of Chicago collection, shows two fallen hunters, a horse overturned, and a circle of combatants engaged in a struggle that blends human and animal forces. Orientalist iconography reduces the environment to elemental sky, sea and dunes, emphasizing the exotic and perilous setting.
Delacroix’s interest in the clash of man and wild beast, documented in sketches from 1854, informs the dynamic, swirling composition that symbolizes the tension between civilization and untamed nature.
Technique & Style
La Chasse aux lions au Maroc is an oil painting executed on canvas. Delacroix applied oil paint in a studio after plein‑air studies of lion hunts in Morocco, a method noted in contemporary records. The work measures 76.5 cm in height by 98.5 cm in width and dates to 1861.
Its surface shows a dynamic arrangement of intersecting diagonals that generate a swirling movement among riders, horses and the two lions. The sky is rendered in muted tones, while the sea and dunes are simplified to elemental bands of blue and sand. The composition reflects Orientalist interests in exotic hunting scenes and blends Romantic vigor with a meticulous handling of light and texture, resulting in a vivid, almost tactile depiction of the struggle.
History & Provenance
La Chasse aux lions au Maroc was painted by Eugène Delacroix in 1860–1861, an oil on canvas measuring 76.5 by 98.5 cm. The work belongs to a series of lion-hunt compositions that Delacroix developed over several years, drawing on sketches and drawings made during and after his stay in Morocco. A specific 1854 sketch, preserved at the Musée d'Orsay, served him as a study of movement; it was partly painted outdoors and finished in the studio, and a related completed canvas from 1855 is held at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux. The 1861 painting is regarded as the version in which the opposing forces are most fully integrated in the struggle.
The canvas is now held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago in the United States, where it remains part of the institution's holdings.
The painting is held by the Art Institute of Chicago, where it is inventoried as accession number 1926.165.
It was included in the exhibition Delacroix Paintings and Drawings held at the Art Institute of Chicago from September 10 to October 17, 1938.
Context
Eugène Delacroix painted La Chasse aux lions au Maroc in 1861, an oil on canvas measuring 76.5 cm by 98.5 cm that depicts a dramatic lion hunt set against a desert landscape. The work belongs to the Orientalist movement and reflects the Romantic interest in exotic subjects, as noted in contemporary scholarship. Critics have praised its dynamic composition and the way it merges human and animal forces within a swirling scene, a theme Delacroix revisited throughout his career, from earlier sketches made during his Moroccan journey to earlier hunting paintings.
The painting’s placement in the Art Institute of Chicago collection underscores its significance as a representative example of 19th‑century European engagement with North African themes.
Overview
Eugène Delacroix's 1861 oil painting, La Chasse aux lions au Maroc (The Lion Hunt in Morocco), exemplifies the Romantic and Orientalist movements. It depicts a dynamic lion hunt set in North Africa, characterized by intense action and vivid color. This work, a significant example of the artist's mature style, is currently held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix ( DEL-ə-krwah, -KRWAH; French:; 26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist who was regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school.
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