Assyrian Lion Hunt (unfinished)

Assyrian Lion Hunt (unfinished), undated and in The Wilson gallery, engages with Rivière's long fascination with lions and with the ancient Near Eastern visual tradition of royal lion hunts — a subject made famous in Britain by the Assyrian relief sculptures in the British Museum, excavated at Nineveh in the 1840s and 1850s. The relief carvings of Ashurbanipal's lion hunts had a profound impact on Victorian artists interested in animal painting, offering ancient precedents for the dramatic confrontation of man and predator. Rivière's unfinished state gives the painting documentary value, revealing his process: likely compositional underpainting and early figure laying before final surface development.

In its unfinished state, the painting reveals Rivière's working method — likely thinly painted initial lay-in establishing tonal structure before the anatomical detail of his finished surfaces. The lion's form, even incomplete, would display the skeletal and muscular knowledge that made him the period's most authoritative animal painter.