Oil sketches are generally small, executed paintings with quick brushstrokes and conceived as preliminary studies of the final work. When Rubens worked on great works, he used to make an oil sketch of the composition, which, together with the drawings of the different details, served as a model for a team of highly qualified assistants. The latter took care of prepare the painting before Rubens intervened to complete the work. A working method that characterized many workshops of great artists who they had too many commissions to carry out on their own. The sketch of the lion hunt is one of the first hunting scenes created by the Flemish painter, a pictorial genre in great demand by the aristocratic patrons, for whom hunting, as well as a sport, was a symbol of power. We do not know the definitive work, but many of the reasons contained in this draft we find them in other works. The dense and dynamic composition, capable of transmitting the extraordinary energy and violence of hunting together with its horror, is an example of the vigorous Rubens style. The artist had a great fluidity of hand, capable of move the brush lightly and flicker. After Rubens there were many painters to make initial oil sketches as part of the preparatory work, and these sketches were soon appreciated in their autonomy. In Rubens' oil sketches the master's hand manifests itself in every touch with great freedom in the use of the brush.