Tigers, lions and monkeys in an imagined jungle · 1891 -1910

Tigers, lions, jaguars and monkeys emerge from vegetation built leaf by leaf, in jungles that Rousseau invents entirely from Paris.

Henri Rousseau, known as the Customs Officer, was born in Laval in 1844 and died in Paris in 1910. He never saw a tropical jungle, despite the stories he liked to tell. His animals and vegetation come from the Jardin des Plantes, zoological galleries, stuffed specimens, illustrated magazines, postcards and books. Surprised!, presented in 1891, opens his large series of jungles with a tiger caught in a storm. Rousseau then superimposes leaves, herbs, flowers and trunks like elements of a dense setting. The perspective remains flat, the scales become strange and species from different continents can coexist. This lack of scientific realism does not diminish the power of beasts: eyes, fangs, coat and posture are enough to create threat or curiosity. The monkeys play, the lions lie in wait, the jaguar attacks; each animal becomes the center of a silent plant theater. The "Animals of Henri Rousseau" selection notably compares Surprised! - Henri Rousseau and Two lions on the lookout in the jungle - Henri Rousseau. His reading favors the material.

Rousseau never crossed the jungle: he built it in Paris, leaf after leaf, until he made his animals larger than life and stranger than dreams.