An Arab Saddling his Horse Eugène Delacroix

Eugène Delacroix’s passionate compositions, his intensely sensuous handling of colour and his masterful brushwork made him one of the leading exponents of French romanticism. Both of his works in the Budapest collection date from the final period of his career, but their orientalist subject matter was derived from memories of his youth: in 1832 he spent several months travelling in Morocco, which served as a source of inspiration for many decades.
The painting entitled An Arab Saddling his Horse (1857) is dominated by bright and powerful tones. The artist painted the dynamic everyday scene and the man’s magnificent attire with both accuracy and vibrancy. Delacroix was equally perceptive in his observations of the animal world, as exemplified by his brilliant rendering of the agitated horse, as it instinctively turns towards the white dog that is making it angry.