Le Lion des Genets

Did Nicolas Maréchal ever imagine his detailed portrait of Marc and Constantine would inspire tales at Le Lion des Genets centuries later? Here we stand, before a tribute not just to lions, but to the complex relationship between humans and these majestic creatures in 19th-century France. Le Lion des Genets isn’t a physical lion, but rather a representation of the “staggering visibility” of lions in French art during a time when they were vanishing from the wild. Katie Hornstein’s book, “Myth and Menagerie: Seeing Lions in the Nineteenth Century,” explores this paradox. She reveals how the very act of depicting lions “faithfully” relied on access to captive animals in zoos and spectacles, like those at the Jardin des Plantes. Imagine Paris in 1798. Two lions, Marc and Constantine, paraded through the streets, preceding looted Italian art. Their arrival at the Jardin des Plantes elevated them to near celebrity status. Constantine even birthed cubs on the anniversary of Napoleon’s coup, further solidifying their symbolic connection to French power. Maréchal’s portrait, capturing their individual identities, marked a shift from depicting lions as a universal type. Another artist, Jean-Baptiste Huet, even gave his lion family human expressions, adding a layer of “hallucinatory strangeness” to their image. Le Lion des Genets reminds us of this era, where lions became intertwined with French colonial desires. The surge in lion imagery coincided with their decline in the wild, a tragic consequence of hunting and capture. Hornstein’s study brings to light the suffering of these animals, often surviving only briefly in captivity under constant observation. She notes the irony of artists fueling the myth of the lion in its natural state while relying on caged and coerced animals to create their art. Le Lion des Genets serves as a poignant symbol of this complex history. It prompts us to consider the “man-made ecological disaster” that unfolded and the enduring fascination with these magnificent creatures, even at the cost of their freedom.