Lioness Devouring a Hare

Artist Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798 - 1863)

Dateca. 1850

MediumBlack ink on varnished paper

DimensionsOverall: 6 × 13 7/8 inches (15.24 × 35.23 cm)
Framed: 14 × 21 3/4 × 1 inches (35.56 × 55.25 × 2.54 cm)

Credit LineGift of Mr. and Mrs. Herman R. Sutherland

Object number76-31

On View

Not on view

Collections

European Art

Terms

Exhibition History

Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, The Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa, OK, June 23-August 18, 1996; The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, Jacksonville, FL, September 20-November 29, 1996; The Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, NH, December 21, 1996-March 2, 1997, no. 64, as Lioness Devouring a Hare.

Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from the Permanent Collection, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, July 12-September 6, 1998, unnumbered, as Lioness Devouring a Hare.

Animalia: 19^th and 20^th Century, The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, February 28-June 18, 2015, unnumbered, as Lioness Devouring a Hare.

Gallery Label

Eugène Delacroix’s images of big cats form an important theme within his prolific output. They offered him an opportunity to explore the visceral power of these majestic animals and, on a broader level, the raw force of nature. This drawing shows the tense, crouching form of the lioness as she devours the entrails of a lifeless hare. Delacroix is known to have studied lions in the Jardin des Plantes, the Paris zoo, from the 1820s on, and this drawing could therefore have been made from life.

Provenance

Delacroix estate;

H. Shickman Gallery, New York;

Herman R. (1913-2006) and Helen (née DeLano, 1914-2004) Sutherland, Shawnee Mission, KS;

Given by Herman R. and Helen D. Sutherland to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 1976.

Published References

Roger Ward, Dürer to Matisse: Master Drawings from The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, exh. cat. (Kansas City, MO: Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 1996), 199-201, (repro.), as Lioness Devouring a Hare.

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.