Study of a Horse (c. 1825–30): Art, History and Details

Study of a Horse (c. 1825–30) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798–1863).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Eugène Delacroix repeatedly depicted horses throughout his career, visiting stables to observe the animals at rest and in motion. This sheet is likely one such example made from life. Delacroix loosely sketched the horse's form, concentrating on the tension of its front legs and leaving the rest of its body loosely rendered. Through such exercises, the artist hoped to eventually master this subject.

Object facts

• Title: Study of a Horse
• Date: c. 1825–30
• Creator attribution: Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798–1863)
• Culture: France, 19th century
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: Pen and brown ink on cream laid paper
• Dimensions: Image: 17.1 x 24 cm (6 3/4 x 9 7/16 in.); Sheet: 21 x 28.2 cm (8 1/4 x 11 1/8 in.)
• Collection: DR - French
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2020.128

A detail from the museum

Although Eugène Delacroix created a realistic representation of a horse in this drawing, the animals sometimes served as symbols for the conflict between man and nature in his work.

Collection credit

Nancy F. and Joseph P. Keithley Collection Gift

Further reading listed by the museum

• Salsbury, Britany. "French and Canadian Prints and Drawings." In The Keithley Collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, edited by Heather Lemonedes Brown, 56-57, 62-63, 166-167. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2022.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.