+ Expand

Description: Le chat tigre signed 'Henri Rousseau' (lower right) oil on canvas 12 5/8 x 9in. (32 x 23cm.) PROVENANCE Galerie de l'Effort Moderne [L‚once Rosenberg], Paris. EXHIBITION Paris, Halles Saint-Pierre, 1866-1960, Peintres na‹fs de Rousseau … Demonchy, Oct. 1994-Feb. 1995. NOTES Sold with a photo-certificate from Dora Vallier dated Paris, le 17 Mars 1995. Henri 'le Douanier' Rousseau's fascination with the animal kingdom led him to wander through the Jardin des Plantes in Paris where he could listen to the roaring of the big cats that would provide inspiration for his celebrated jungle pictures which were praised by some of the major figures of Paris modernism, including Picasso, Apollinaire, Robert Delaunay and Brancusi. In Chat tigre we see Rousseau tackling a more domestic theme - the subject recalls the cat in the Portrait de Pierre Loti (Zurich, Kunsthaus) - but the work is nevertheless underscored with his inimitable sense of the exotic and forceful simplicity of vision.