The sheet contains the outlines of a pair of running horses, a tiger or female lion prowling, and a tiger drinking at the edge of a watering hole, all of which recall elements in Delacroix's works. The pose of the prowling cat echoes that of an 1862 painting of a tiger growling at a snake wrapped around a tree (Corcoran Collection, National Gallery of Art, 2014.136.30), although the cat's pose is in reverse on the present sheet. The lower study of a tiger drinking was the subject of an 1853-55 painting, now in the Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford (1961.287). A second version was sold by Stair-Sainty Gallery, London. Delacroix's assistant, Pierre Andrieu, also painted the same subject of a wounded lioness drinking at the water's edge (1840/50; Art Institute of Chicago, 1894.1048)
While the sheet may record Delacroix's ideas, his drawings and paintings were widely copied and imitated, indicating that these outlines of animals found in his later paintings could be the work of a student or follower.
Inscribed illegibly in black chalk at upper right, "...30".
Wagstaff, Sam, former owner.
Mapplethorpe, Robert former owner.
Thayer, John M. (John MacLane), 1944-2004, former owner.