Henri Julien Félix Rousseau was a French self-taught artist. He was a post-impressionist painter in a naive or primitive manner and is known for his depiction of scenes of jungles.
Pablo Picasso found one of Rousseau’s paintings being sold as a junk canvas, and he immediately admired the work. Picasso bought the painting and then went to meet this ingenious artist. They became good friends over the years. In 1908, Picasso decided to honor his friend with a banquet that was half serious, half burlesque. This was “Banquet Rousseau,” which was “one of the most notable social events of the twentieth century,” described poet and literary critic John Malcolm Brinnin.
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Tiger in a Tropical Strom or Surprised (1891)
It was the first of many jungle paintings for which Rousseau is chiefly known.
