Tropical Forest: Battling Tiger and Buffalo 1908

Henri Rousseau conjured this ‘Tropical Forest: Battling Tiger and Buffalo’ from his imagination, we think, in the early 20th century. Look at the way the jungle is alive with greens and yellows, punctuated by those unexpected pops of red and orange. I imagine Rousseau, in his studio, layering paint, coaxing this scene into being through trial and error. The way he renders the foliage is fascinating, isn't it? Each leaf feels deliberately placed. There’s a tension between the flat picture plane and the illusion of depth, almost as if he's building a stage set. And those heavy outlines! You can almost feel him carefully edging each form with paint, pushing and pulling to make them fit together. I am thinking of other painters here, maybe even a kid with a box of crayons. It all comes from somewhere, this great ongoing conversation. We see the world, mess around with it, and talk back with paint. Painting is weird; it’s physical, emotional, and, above all, wonderfully ambiguous.