Fight Between a Tiger and a Buffalo

1908

Henri Rousseau

(French, 1844–1910)

Culture

France, late 19th-early 20th Century

Medium

oil on fabric

Measurements

Framed: 183 x 203 x 4.5 cm (72 1/16 x 79 15/16 x 1 3/4 in.); Unframed: 170 x 189.5 cm (66 15/16 x 74 5/8 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of the Hanna Fund 1949.186

You can copy, modify, and distribute this work, all without asking permission. Learn more about CMA's Open Access Initiative.

Location

On view at Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, Mar 24, 2026 - Jul 20, 2026

Did You Know?

Many of Henri Rousseau's paintings depict wild animals and tropical jungles that might lead one to believe he traveled widely. However, Rousseau never left France, but drew inspiration from visiting botanical gardens and reading travel books.

Description

Having never ventured outside France, Henri Rousseau derived his jungle scenes from reading travel books and visiting the Paris botanical garden. He placed this imaginary scene of a tiger attacking a buffalo within a fantastic jungle environment in which botanical accuracy was of little importance (note the bananas growing upside down). Here, sharply outlined hothouse plants are enlarged to fearsome proportions. Rousseau was working on this painting while imprisoned for fraud in December 1907. Officials granted him an early release to finish it for exhibition at the Salon des Indépendants, where this major composition, one of the artist's largest and most important, appeared in March 1908. A self-taught artist and retired customs inspector, Rousseau was admired by Pablo Picasso and other avant-garde artists for his originality and the naïve purity of his vision.