Study of a Horse and Rider

Jules-Élie Delaunay · c. 1874

Medium

Charcoal, with touches of gouache, on tan China paper

Original size

21 × 15.3 cm (8 5/16 × 6 1/16 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Romanticism

A study of controlled energy, this drawing captures horse and rider in a moment of taut suspension — the animal's muscles suggested through swift, confident charcoal strokes that betray a hand accustomed to anatomy as much as art. Jules-Élie Delaunay trained under Hippolyte Flandrin in Paris before winning the Prix de Rome in 1856, an achievement that shaped his disciplined, classically-grounded approach to the figure. Works like this one reveal the intensive preparatory process behind his larger compositions: the tan China paper warms the charcoal lines, while small touches of white gouache lift the horse's haunches and the rider's form from the background, giving the scene a sculptural presence without overworking the surface. Delaunay was known among contemporaries for the sureness of his drawing — a quality that comes through even in a study not intended for public exhibition. The Art Institute of Chicago holds this work as part of its collection of French academic drawings, where it stands as a record of Delaunay's working method rather than a finished statement. The hand-painted oil reproduction translates that same sense of immediacy onto canvas, preserving the balance between sketched spontaneity and studied precision that makes the original so quietly compelling.