# Tiger Ready to Spring

- By: Eugène Delacroix (French, 1798-1863)
- Date: n.d.
- Medium: Cliché verre on cream wove paper
- Classification: Print
- Dimensions: Image: 15.8 × 19.1 cm (6 1/4 × 7 9/16 in.); Plate: 16.7 × 20.1 cm (6 5/8 × 7 15/16 in.); Sheet: 17 × 20.5 cm (6 3/4 × 8 1/8 in.)
- Culture: France
- Credit line: Gift of the Print and Drawing Club
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/92343)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://www.artic.edu/iiif/2/538acba4-c822-5f10-89a3-58b97f385f52/full/!1920,1080/0/default.jpg
- Who can see it: Little Ones profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

In contrast to the many resting tigers depicted by Delacroix in paintings, lithographs, and etchings, this one stands upright on its feet, tense and snarling at a challenger to the left. This is a rare instance of the artist’s use of the cliché verre technique, in which lines were etched or drawn on a glass plate to make a photographically produced image. Here the sparely delineated strokes imbue the wiry cat with an almost electric sense of anticipation and compact power.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0