This painting depicts a lion crouched over the carcass of a large deer with curving horns, confronting a snake. The golden lion is toward the left of center, and the snake comes from behind it, its long sinuous body stretching down from the dark trees above. The snake's head is on the ground to the right of center, and it turns to the left to look up at the lion. The lion leans over the carcass, its yellow eyes wide and its mouth open in a snarl to reveal long white teeth and a pink tongue. Its claws dig into the pale brown body of the deer, leaving red trails of blood. The snake's mouth is…
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Lion Defending its Prey

painter Sir Edwin Landseer (British, 1802 - 1873)

c. 1840

Medium
oil on paper on canvas
Classification
Painting
Dimensions
overall: 25.1 x 32.4 cm (9 7/8 x 12 3/4 in.) ; framed: 42.6 x 54.9 x 4.8 cm (16 3/4 x 21 5/8 x 1 7/8 in.)
Culture
British
Museum
National Gallery of Art, CAB
Credit line
Gift of Frank Anderson Trapp
Rights
Public domain (NGA Open Access, CC0), as the museum states it.
Who can see it
Adult profiles and older: its museum's description or title mentions violence, death or gore. How works are placed

View at the National Gallery of Art