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Fight between a Tiger and a Buffalo by Henri Rousseau

Henri Rousseau · 1908-01-01

This is Henri Rousseau's Fight between a Tiger and a Buffalo, painted in 1908 and held at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Rousseau famously never left France, yet he painted some of the most recognizable jungle scenes in art history.

Look closely at the white pendant blooms hanging above the struggle. They are entirely invented. Rousseau assembled his tropics piece by piece from Paris zoo animals, botanical garden specimens, and illustrations in magazines. When a real leaf or bloom didn't suit his composition, he simply made one up.

Rousseau was a toll collector who started painting seriously in his forties. The Paris avant-garde laughed at him, then championed him. By the time he painted this scene, he was already being visited by Picasso and admired by the young artists who would reshape modern painting.

The result here is a fantasy of a place he could only imagine, rendered with a directness that lets the invention feel natural. Which pull you in more: the violence of the animals or the strange calm of the painted leaves around them?

Details

A tiger clamps down on a buffalo's neck.
A tiger clamps down on a buffalo's neck.
He built this jungle from zoo visits, botanical gardens, and illustrated magazines.
He built this jungle from zoo visits, botanical gardens, and illustrated magazines.
He painted every leaf as a perfect, flat silhouette.
He painted every leaf as a perfect, flat silhouette.
Now look at the white blooms hanging above.
Now look at the white blooms hanging above.
The tiger's bold orange-and-black stripes are the painting's kinetic center , the attacker caught mid-lunge makes the violence visceral yet stylized.
The tiger's bold orange-and-black stripes are the painting's kinetic center , the attacker caught mid-lunge makes the violence visceral yet stylized.
Transcript

A tiger clamps down on a buffalo's neck. The scene is suffocatingly wild and dense. Henri Rousseau never left France. He built this jungle from zoo visits, botanical gardens, and illustrated magazines. He painted every leaf as a perfect, flat silhouette. Now look at the white blooms hanging above. This flower does not exist. He invented it.