EUGENE DELACROIX
Charenton-Saint-Maurice 1798 - Paris 1863

A Tiger Drinking (Sold)

Oil On Canvas: 26 x 39 cm (10.83 x 16.25 in)

Signed lower right: E. Delacroix

Provenance: Possibly Boussod Valadon & Cie, bought from Mme de Prez-Cassier in April 1878; then sold to Bright, London in the same month; acquired by the dealer F. Gérard, before March 1888 (and shown to Alfred Robaut in that month); Private Collection, US (by descent); Private Collection, New York.

Robaut lists two paintings of this subject with the same composition as the drawing Robaut 679, which is now in the Fogg Museum (repr. L. Johnson, op. cit., fig. 44): no. 679bis which is listed as the picture that passed in the Spencer sale in New York in February 1888 and was exhibited in the same city in 1889-90, but is wrongly described as a canvas 34 x 52 cm; and no. 679ter, which is described as 'une répétition peinte de ce même sujet, mesurant 26 x 39 cm', signed bottom right Eug Delacroix, shown to Robaut by the dealer F. Gérard in March 1888.

As pointed out by Robaut, the drawing now in the Fogg Museum is on tracing paper and bears traces of paint on the surface, suggesting it was impressed upon a painting (probably this work). The slightly smaller, and sketchier Hartford picture omits the tiger’s mate standing in the background (left), and the foliage is less elaborated; since this work is painted on board it may suggest that it was preparatory for this more finished painting.

Sold to Private Collection