Two Lions on the Lookout in the Jungle

Rousseau never saw a jungle. He built them in his Paris studio out of afternoons at the Jardin des Plantes, the city's botanical garden, where glass hothouses kept tropical plants alive and a small menagerie kept the animals; he said stepping into those greenhouses felt like walking into a dream. This is one of his last jungle scenes, finished in 1910, the year he died that September at 66. The lions watching from the leaves are stalking a place that only ever existed a short tram ride from his door, assembled from potted plants, stuffed specimens, and pictures in books.