Eugene Delacroix, A Young Tiger Playing with its Mother, 1830

One of Eugène Delacroix's earlier paintings from 1830, A Young Tiger Playing with its Mother provides a perfect example of the artist's interest in animals and their human qualities. The enormous creatures aggressively interacting, are, in fact playing with each other. Influenced by his trips to the zoo, Delacroix was thought to have used his own pet cat in order to correctly form the felines' bodies.

Based on his thoughts that there is beauty within the intensity and violence of nature, Delacroix painted the tigers in intense colors with piercing gazes. Delacroix believed that pure colors were rare in nature. This is why he sought to capture the pureness and richness in Young Tiger Playing with its Mother.

The painting’s subject matter is nearly the same as his other piece, Tiger Hunt. Both works contain the same intensity in the color and movement, but Tiger Hunt is much more violent. Rather than the innocent play of the cats in Young Tiger, Tiger Hunt, is full of adrenaline and ferocity. Both paintings of tigers also display Delacroix’s interest in exotic cultures other than his own. Delacroix’s brilliant use of color and ability to capture the beauty within ferocity set the tone for many of his future works.