Samson Fighting with the Lion

c. 1497/1498

Albrecht Dürer

Associated Names
Albrecht Dürer

Artist, German, 1471 - 1528

This is a drawing of a man fighting a lion in a detailed landscape. The scene is engraved with intricate line work, depicting a muscular figure engaged in combat with a fierce lion. The man, dressed in historical attire, appears to be pulling the jaws of the lion apart with great force. The background is richly detailed, with a landscape featuring distant hills, trees, and a castle or fortified town. The sky is filled with wispy clouds and birds, and the entire composition is rendered in fine, detailed lines typical of traditional engravings. The drawing captures a dramatic moment, showcasing both the tension of the struggle and the beauty of the natural and architectural elements surrounding the scene.

Media Options

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    woodcut on laid paper

  • Credit Line

    Rosenwald Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet (trimmed to block): 38 × 27.8 cm (14 15/16 × 10 15/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1964.8.1789

  • Catalogue Raisonné

    Meder, no. 107

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Langmaak collection, Hamburg (Lugt 2801a); (Charles Sessler, Philadelphia); purchased by Lessing J. Rosenwald [1891-1979], Jenkintown, PA (Lugt 1760b and Lugt 1932d), 1930; gift to NGA, 1964.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1933

  • An Exhibition of Prints from the Collection of Lessing J. Rosenwald, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, 1933, no. 48.

1960

  • Dürer, Rembrandt, Goya: Exhibition of Fine Prints, Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, CA, 1960-1961, no. 15.

1971

  • Albrecht Dürer: The Early Graphic Works, Princeton University Art Museum, NJ, 1971, no. 44, repro.

1973

  • Fifteenth- and Sixteenth-Century Prints of Northern Europe from the National Gallery of Art Rosenwald Collection, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 1973, no. 41.

1988

  • Graphic Survey Show, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., June 1988.

1995

  • Imitation and Invention: Old Master Prints and Their Sources, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1995, as Samson and the Lion.

Bibliography

1932

  • Meder, Joseph. Dürer-Katalog; ein Handbuch über Albrecht Dürers Stiche, Radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren Zustände, Ausgaben und Wasserzeichen. Vienna: Verlag Gilhofer und Ranschburg, 1932. Reprint. New York: Da Capo Press, 1971: no. 107.

2001

  • Schoch, Rainer, Mattihas Mende, and Anna Scherbaum. Albrecht Dürer: Das druckgraphische Werk. Munich, 2001: vol. 2: no. 127.

Inscriptions

in block, bottom center: AD [artist's monogram]; verso, lower right, in graphite by a later hand: [reference information in German]; verso, lower left, in graphite by a later hand: B.2; verso, lower left, in graphite by a later hand: B. V 7 p. 116. no. 2_127 of [?] [illegible]; verso, lower left, in black ink by a later hand: Mo Liphast [?]; verso, lower left, in graphite by a later hand: KK960

Markings

verso, bottom right, in red ink, unidentifed collector's mark in a circle: F_H [?]

Watermarks

large imperial orb (Meder 53)

Wikidata ID

Q18339642

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