Study of walking tiger 

Raden Saleh produced this "Study of Walking Tiger" using watercolor. The tiger dominates the composition, a study in oranges and blacks set against a neutral ground. The realism is achieved through careful attention to the animal's musculature and the texture of its fur. However, the unfinished quality disrupts the realism. The tiger's hind legs are only lightly sketched, contrasting sharply with the detailed head and forelegs. This contrast may destabilize the viewer's expectation of a complete representation, hinting at the constructed nature of images. Saleh, an Indonesian artist trained in European techniques, often negotiated the space between Eastern and Western artistic traditions. This drawing then, can be seen as reflecting the colonial gaze, where the exotic East is both captured and framed, but not fully realised. The incomplete aspect suggests an underlying critique of representation itself. Is the artist merely rendering an image, or is he also commenting on the act of capturing and displaying the 'other'?