Delacroix’s
long 1832 exploration of Morocco, Algeria, and Spain was still fresh in his
memory when he painted The Lion Hunt almost thirty years later. Delacroix, a Frenchman,
painted during the troubled times that witnessed the increase of industrialism
in Europe. He was dubbed the leading Romantic painter although he himself had
an aversion to this title since he had a deeper vision behind his paintings
than most of his purely romantic contemporaries. As poet Charles Baudelaire
said of him, “Delacroix was passionately in love with passion but coldly
determined to express passion as clearly as possible.”
Recollections
of the Arabian Nights
By Lord
Alfred Tennyson
Thereon, his deep eye
laughter-stirr'd
With merriment of kingly
pride,
Sole star of all that
place and time,
I saw him—in his golden
prime,
THE GOOD HAROUN
ALRASCHID!
