The hunting on lions

The Hunting of Lions, painted in 1736 and now in the Musées Nationaux Récupération, is an unusual subject within Pater's catalogue, which was overwhelmingly dedicated to fêtes champêtres and scenes of elegant leisure. Lion hunts had been a prestige subject in European painting since the seventeenth century, associated with Flemish Baroque painters such as Rubens who depicted them as allegories of heroic struggle. Pater's adoption of the subject may reflect a specific commission or the desire to demonstrate versatility beyond his customary subjects. The combination of animal ferocity, physical danger, and exotic setting in a lion hunt canvas allowed painters to display skills in action figure composition and animal painting rarely required in their usual genre works.

The lion hunt subject demanded a more dynamic compositional approach than Pater typically employed, with figures on horseback and on foot engaged in rapid, violent action against large prey animals. His brushwork in this painting is correspondingly more energetic than in his fête champêtre works, using faster strokes and stronger value contrasts to convey physical urgency.