Currently not on view
Royal Tiger,
1829
Eugène Delacroix, 1798–1863; born Clarenton-Saint Maurice, France; died Paris, France
x1970-120
Like the sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye, Delacroix romantically represented the savage strength of wild animals as a metaphor for nature untouched by human civilization. Lithography was still a relatively new graphic medium when the artist created this large, detailed image of a solitary Bengal tiger lying in the heat of an imagined South Asian wilderness. Delacroix frequently visited the Paris Menagerie du Jardin des Plantes in preparation for his carefully observed studies of wild animals—particularly lions, tigers, and jaguars. By 1829, the Menagerie had become the world’s largest public zoo.
Information
Title
Royal Tiger
Dates
1829
Maker
Medium
Lithograph
Dimensions
image: 32.8 x 46.7 cm. (12 15/16 x 18 3/8 in.)
sheet: 33.6 x 46.8 cm. (13 1/4 x 18 7/16 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase, Laura P. Hall Memorial Fund
Object Number
x1970-120
Place Made
Europe, France, Paris
Inscription
Signed in pen and ink, lower right: Delacroix dl.
Marks/Labels/Seals
Collector's mark, lower right corner: [possibly Charles Gasc]
Reference Numbers
Delteil 80; Moreau 43
Culture
Type
Materials
Techniques
- Adolphe Moreau, E. Delacroix et son oeuvre: avec des gravures en facsimilé des planches originales les plus rares (Paris: Librairie des bibliophiles, 1873), no. 43, p. 44
- Alfred Robaut, L’oeuvre complet de Eugène Delacroix, peintures, dessins, gravures, lithographies, (Paris: Charavay Frères, 1885)., no. 310, p. 87 (illus.)
- Loys Delteil, "Volume 3," Le peintre-graveur illustré (Paris: Chez l'Auteur, 1906-1930)., no. 80 (illus.)
- Raymond Escholier, Delacroix, peintre, graveur, écrivain, (Paris: H. Floury, 1926-29)., p. 208
- "Acquisitions 1970", Record of the Art Museum, Princeton University 30, no. 1 (1971): p. 22-30., p. 27
- Cara Dufour Denison, et al., From Mantegna to Picasso: Drawings from the Thaw Collection at the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York (London: Royal Academy of Arts, 1996)., Illustrated under no. 63, p. 128
