Eagle and Vulture disputing with a Hyena, ca. 1801

Philip Reinagle RA (1749 - 1833)

RA Collection: Art

Reinagle exhibited at the Royal Academy from 1773 onwards and was elected an Associate in 1797. However, he waited a further fifteen years for his elevation to the rank of Academician. Following his election, Reinagle presented as his Diploma work this brooding, if slightly grotesque, painting of a confrontation between a vulture, an eagle and a hyena over the body of a dead hare. Reinagle depicted nature 'red in tooth and claw' and aligned his painting with contemporary theories of the Sublime by setting the fighting animals on a desolate ledge among towering, rocky crags intended to encourage the viewer to contemplate the immensity of the natural world.