Gericault had inspired in Delacroix his fascination with horses, the emblematic beasts of Romantic painting. But his love of horses was fully satisfied only in Morocco. Thereafter the Arab horses
that he had seen and drawn during his voyage constituted a kind of repertoire.
For one of his last paintings, Arab Horses Fighting in a Stable, he drew on a scene that he had witnessed in Tangier, when the horses of Mornay and the English Consul were fighting. No
anatomical studies lie behind this painting. Once again, it is the violence of the combat that he portrays; the power and energy of the animals, an effect emphasised by the strong contrasts of
light and shade.
MOST POPULAR PAINTINGS
Liberty Leading the People
The Death of Sardanapalus
The Massacre at Chios
The Barque of Dante
The Women of Algiers
Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi
Entry of the Crusaders in Constantinople
The Fanatics of Tangier