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A watercolor of a man on horseback spearing a lion which is attacking a fallen man.

A watercolor of a frenzied attack. A ferocious lion leaps down the left side of a retreating dappled white horse, knocking the rider, a naked man with dark skin, to the ground. The man, his body turned from us and to the left, reaches his right arm upwards and away. The lion's mouth is poised over his right leg, which is pinned to the ground by the lion's left foreleg. Close by and behind, a man with mid brown skin, riding to the left on a galloping white horse thrusts a long spear down and into the lion's left shoulder. The horses' manes fly in the mayhem. The man with the spear is dressed in Moorish clothes, a white turban, a bright blue cummerbund and loose red pants. The attacked man's red fez lies behind him and to the left, and his abandoned spear is in the foreground. The sky is streaked with blue and on the horizon there is a range of bright blue hills.

Identification and Creation

Object Number
1943.366
People
Attributed to Théodore Géricault, French (Rouen 1791 - 1824 Paris)
Title
Lion Hunt
Classification
Drawings
Work Type
drawing
Date
19th century
Culture
French
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/298161

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Watercolor, brush and brown ink, and gouache over graphite on blue-gray modern laid paper
Dimensions
actual: 32.2 x 40.8 cm (12 11/16 x 16 1/16 in.)

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop
Accession Year
1943
Object Number
1943.366
Division
European and American Art
Contact
am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu
Permissions

THIS WORK MAY NOT BE LENT BY THE TERMS OF ITS ACQUISITION TO THE HARVARD ART MUSEUMS.

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Publication History

  • Agnes Mongan, ed., One Hundred Master Drawings, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, 1949), p. 146, repr.
  • Agnes Mongan, "The Fogg Art Museum's Collection of Drawings", Harvard Library Bulletin, Harvard University (Cambridge, 1958), vol. 3, no. 2, March, pp. 5-9, p. 202
  • Dorothy W. Gillerman, ed., Grenville L. Winthrop: Retrospective for a Collector, exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum (Cambridge, 1969), pp. 154-155, no. 104, repr. p. 155
  • Germain Bazin, Théodore Géricault: Etude critique, documents, et catalogue raisonné, Wildenstein Institute (Paris, France, 1987 -1997), vol. 7, no. 2653, repr., also p. 56 (as Géricault)
  • Agnes Mongan, David to Corot: French Drawings in the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA, 1996), cat. no. 185, repr.

Exhibition History

  • Between the Empires: Géricault, Delacroix, Chasseriau--Painters of the Romantic Movement, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, 04/30/1946 - 06/01/1946

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of European and American Art at am_europeanamerican@harvard.edu