Panther Seizing a Stag

The unrestrained violence of animals evoked a powerful response from the Romantics who saw them as embodiments of instinct as opposed to reason. In animal combat they saw the most elemental struggle of all, the struggle for survival. Géricault and Delacroix were painters who explored this facet of French Romanticism most deeply; Bayre was the quintessential Romantic sculptor.

Credit: Gift of M.A.S. de Reinis, 1981