Prints and Authors in the Time of Manet

Tiger, Stopping (Tigre en arrêt)

Glass print (clichè verre), 1854
Museum purchase, 1951.338

Eugène Delacroix is considered the greatest French Romantic artist. He often sought inspiration from English literary sources or medieval and Renaissance history. His travels in North Africa supplied him with exotic subjects that he complemented and enhanced by spending long hours studying the anatomy and disposition of animals at zoos in Europe. Although he may never have seen big cats stalking and devouring prey in the wild, he had a remarkable ability to transform his studies of caged animals into scenes of wild animals in nature.