Christ on the Sea of Galilee by Eugène Delacroix

This immense dramatic melee represents the peak of Romantic hunt painting, celebrating the wild struggle between civilization and animal savagery. Through this monumental composition entitled “Christ on the Sea of Galilee”, the leader Eugène Delacroix unleashes passions with an absolutely revolutionary plastic and chromatic force. The artist brings together here all the elements of drama, blending the fury of the wild beasts, the terror of the horses, and the desperate heroism of the men.

In the center of a wild nature, a confused and violent struggle opposes several oriental horsemen to fierce lions. On the left, a powerful lioness has brought down a bay brown horse and its rider, while a hunter on a rearing white horse raises his curved saber to strike it. On the right, a male lion attacks the rump of a steed whose rider tries to defend himself with a spear. In the lower part, several fighters struggle hand-to-hand in the middle of dust and red and golden fabrics thrown on the ground. This scene, saturated with physical tension, takes place under a dark sky.

The master’s virtuosity bursts in the passion of his pictorial touch and the extraordinary richness of his palette of contrasting colors. Through this sovereign mastery of color and movement, he signs an absolute masterpiece of Romanticism, vibrant with life and raw energy.