The Hungry Lion Throws Itself on the Antelope

A lion sinks its fangs into the back of a stricken antelope amid a dense, fantastical jungle of giant leaves, while other predators and birds lurk half-hidden in the foliage. Henri Rousseau, the self-taught painter who never left France, built his jungles from botanical gardens, prints, and imagination. Shown at the 1905 Salon d'Automne in the very room that earned the Fauves their name, the Hungry Lion stood apart - meticulous, eerie, and dreamlike. Now in the Fondation Beyeler, it is the first of his great jungle scenes, savage and strangely still at once.