Return from the lion hunt

As both a finished painting and an ébauche, Return from the Lion Hunt provides a unique view into Gérôme's working method. While the lean muscular bodies of the hunters and the majestic, if lifeless, lion appear carefully painted and refined, the landscape remains a rough study. Gérôme's perfectionism seems to have prevented him from deciding on how to complete the work's non-narrative elements. The artist's biographer Fanny Field Hering, relayed that Gérôme kept the painting in his studio for quite some time as he puzzled over how to finish the background.

Gérôme's studied attention of the lion reveals the artist's fascination with the great beast. Indeed, lions were one of Gérôme's favored subjects, appearing frequently throughout his work. Whether fearless predator or, as in this case, vanquished prey, Gérôme's lions are rendered with a sense of dignity and reverence for the animal's physical qualities and character. Gérôme had ample opportunity to observe these powerful felines in captivity as they were by his time popular in zoos and circuses. In fact, Gerald Ackerman reports that Gérôme even went so far as to purchase a lion from a circus, which lived caged in his studio and served as a model for many of his paintings.

Gerald Ackerman has confirmed the authenticity of this painting.