A Lion, Full Face, August 30, 1841
Eugène Delacroix French
Not on view
Delacroix recorded numerous visits to the zoo and the natural history museum at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, where he could sketch lions from life and carefully study taxidermied specimens. He described the experience as a revitalizing one that encouraged his attention to nature: "How necessary it is to . . . stick one’s head out of doors and try to read from creation, which has nothing in common with cities and the works of man." This 1841 sheet, removed from a sketchbook, includes color notations: "slightly brown" refers to the mane and "light yellow" to the area closer to the nose.
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