Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!)

Henri Rousseau

Oil on canvas

National Gallery, London

Tiger in a Tropical Storm, also known as Surprised!, is an 1891 oil on canvas by Henri Rousseau depicting a tiger crouching low in dense jungle foliage, teeth bared and back arched, illuminated by a flash of lightning as lashing tropical rain streaks diagonally across the canvas. The painting is the first of approximately twenty jungle scenes Rousseau produced and is notable for its meticulous layering of numerous shades of green and Rousseau's distinctive technique of trailing semi-transparent silver-grey strokes to represent rainfall. Rousseau was a self-taught French painter who worked as a customs official before dedicating himself fully to art, and his imaginary jungles were assembled from visits to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, zoological collections, prints, and books, as he never left France. First exhibited at the unjuried Salon des Indépendants in 1891, the work brought Rousseau his first significant critical attention and established the exotic, dreamlike jungle imagery that would define his legacy.