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This is a painting of a red horse standing on a patch of tan ground, tethered by a rope to a tall brown post. The horse's reddish-brown coat is rich and glossy, with white highlights. It faces the left, with its ears pricked up. One of its back legs is slightly raised. The ground behind the horse is flat, with patches of yellow ochre, brown, and dark green. The sky above is a mix of blue tones, with light blue near the horizon and darker blue-green at the top of the painting. The brushstrokes in the painting are thick and visible.
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This is a painting of a red horse standing on a patch of tan ground, tethered by a rope to a tall brown post. The horse's reddish-brown coat is rich and glossy, with white highlights. It faces the left, with its ears pricked up. One of its back legs is slightly raised. The ground behind the horse is flat, with patches of yellow ochre, brown, and dark green. The sky above is a mix of blue tones, with light blue near the horizon and darker blue-green at the top of the painting. The brushstrokes in the painting are thick and visible.

National Gallery of Art · Painting

A Horse Hitched to a Post

Eugène Delacroix

Date
c. 1820
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 19.4 x 21.3 cm (7 5/8 x 8 3/8 in.) framed: 28.7 x 31.1 x 5.1 cm (11 5/16 x 12 1/4 x 2 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
1994.59.17
Credit line
Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon
Time span
1801 to 1825
Department
CF
Original NGA record Wikidata

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • French
  • mammal
  • animal
  • Romantic
  • Horse
  • Acquired after publication of French Paintings of the Nineteenth Century. Part I: Before Impressionism [1800-1859]
Provenance

(Delacroix posthumous sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, February 1864, no. 84); Etienne-François Haro [1827-1897]; his son, Henri Haro [1855-1911]; Haro family; (sale, Neuilly-sur-Seine, 22 February 1934, no. 13).[1] Dubourg collection; acquired 1959 by (Wildenstein & Co., New York);[2] sold 1960 to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, Virginia; gift 1994 to NGA. [1] Provenance from Lee Johnson, _The Paintings of Eugène Delacroix: A Critical Catalogue_, 6 vols., Oxford, 1981: 1:228, M3. [2] Wildenstein date and source of acquisition according to a letter dated 14 December 1998, in NGA curatorial files. This may be Jacques Dubourg (1897-1981), an art dealer in Paris from the late 1920s.

NGA object ID 89678. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.