A lion leaps on a horse and its Arab rider, and man, horse and lion are knotted together into a single writhing mass. The scene is imagined: Eugène Delacroix built its drama in 1849–50 with short, energetic brushstrokes and strong contrasts of light and shadow, on a small sheet of paperboard. The Art Institute of Chicago notes that such images of Arab men locked in combat with wild animals also served a propagandistic function, justifying French colonial rule by depicting its subjects as violent and inhuman. The Chicago collector Potter Palmer bought it at a New York auction in 1892 for $6,350, and his family gave it to the Art Institute in 1922. It is in the Art Institute of Chicago.