Delacroix. Horses and Other Animals

The Musée Delacroix presents a new display exploring works by Eugène Delacroix featuring animals, on the occasion of the acquisition of two studies of horses that recently underwent conservation treatment. Being exhibited at the museum for the first time, these two studies – respectively of a chestnut and a palomino horse – illustrate Delacroix's lively interest in horses and depictions of them. For the Romantic painter, horses, lions and tigers were a subject of study, and one that he featured in numerous paintings, lithographs, decorative works and more throughout his career. In the 1820s, the young Delacroix became particularly interested in horses. He based his depictions on observation of nature and on works by masters he admired. They were a continuation of Delacroix's endeavour to understand animal anatomy, movements and postures, actively undertaken in his youth. Horses were a common means of transport at the time, and he could also observe them in stables and riding rings. The Romantic generation was as fascinated by big cats as it was by horses. Delacroix frequently went with his friend Barye to the Menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes to draw the lions. Beautiful and ferocious, tigers, lions, lionesses and even cats were often portrayed on the watch, fighting or swooping in on their prey. For Delacroix, these creatures, often quite different from those found in the wild, were a way of depicting the movement and violence of the confrontations with greater freedom than would be possible in a history painting. From 5 November 2026 to 3 January 2027, as part of the _PhotoSaintGermain_ festival, the museum is holding an exhibition of contemporary photography by Karen Knorr depicting animals, two centuries after Delacroix's own works.