Combat of the Giaour and the Pasha

Combat of the Giaour and the Pasha from 1835 at the Musee de la Ville de Paris depicts a scene from Byron's poem about a Venetian who kills a Turkish pasha. The subject combined Delacroix's passion for Byron with his Orientalist interests. As the leading French Romantic painter, Delacroix brought passionate color and dynamic energy to all his subjects; his journal records his constant study of color relationships and his admiration for Rubens, Constable, and Veronese.

The violent combat is rendered with dynamic energy and rich color. Delacroix's vigorous brushwork captures the fury of the horseback encounter.