熱帯の嵐の中の虎

Rousseau exhibited this in 1891 under a one-word title, Surprised!, at the Salon des Indépendants, the show with no jury where anyone could hang a canvas. It was the first of the jungle paintings he is now known for, and here is the thing about the jungle. Rousseau never saw one. He never left France. The lush green came from the hothouses and the zoo of the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, from prints and picture books and stuffed animals. He built the foliage up patiently in dozens of different greens, and for the rain he trailed thin diagonal strands of silver paint straight across the whole surface. The tiger crouches in a flash of lightning, about to spring, and whatever it has surprised is off the edge of the canvas, out of sight. The critics who saw it in 1891 were divided.