1826
oil
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
The Combat of the Giaour and Hassan is a 1826 oil by Eugène Delacroix, a French Romanticism work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see two men on rearing horses, swords raised in a wild fight. One wears white, the other dark red. Dust and muscle twist together in a tight, swirling mess. Delacroix painted this after reading a poem by Lord Byron. The poem tells of revenge, but the artist didn’t show the story—he showed the raw energy of the moment. The horses’ legs almost blur, like a snapshot of motion. If you like this kind of charged scene, look up *impasto*—the thick, textured brushwork that makes the paint feel alive.
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…
Read the full account in the museum source.
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.
See the richer artist page
