Delacroix, Eugène (1798-1863)
Tigre et serpent (Tiger and Snake)
1862
Oil on canvas, 33.02 × 41.28 cm
National Gallery of Art, Washington
A crouching tiger to our left bares its fangs at a hissing snake wound around a tree to our right in this nearly square painting. Yellow eyes gleaming, the tiger stretches its front paws forward with ears pinned back, teeth bared, rump in the air, and its tail curling down near its back legs. The white fur of the tiger’s underbelly near the front legs glows in the sunlight. Light glints off the skin of the snake, which coils around the tree twice and flicks its forked tongue between gaping jaws. The grassy area around the tiger is painted in shades of gold, green, and mustard yellow. Behind the tiger, a sage-green plain stretches back on our left to rocky hills in the distance, with hints of blue sky and clouds beyond. The tree frames the scene on our right, its gnarled, split trunk extending off the top edge of the canvas and its roots reaching beyond the bottom edge, where the artist signed and dated the work: “Eug. Delacroix 1862.” (NGA)