Crouching Tiger

Eugène Delacroix

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of Delacroix’s favorite activities was to sketch the lions and tigers in the menagerie at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. This exquisite ink drawing combines the knowledge gained from that exercise with his observations of domestic cats to portray the arched stance of a tiger about to pounce. In addition to the pen, Delacroix employed a brush to convey bolder lines such as the rounded back, crease of the hind leg, and distinctive broad stripes of the animal’s coat. The swirling S-curve of the tail winding around the creature’s leg adds to the coiling potential of the pose.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art