The Hungry Lion Throws Itself on the Antelope
| The Hungry Lion Throws Itself on the Antelope | |
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| Artist | Henri Rousseau |
| Year | Exhibited in 1905 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 200 cm × 301 cm ( 78 3⁄4 in × 118 1⁄2 in) |
| Location | Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, Basel, Switzerland |
The Hungry Lion Throws Itself on the Antelope (Le lion ayant faim se jette sur l'antilope) is a large oil-on-canvas painting created by Henri Rousseau in 1905. Following Scouts Attacked by a Tiger the previous year, The Hungry Lion was the second jungle painting to mark Rousseau's return to this genre after a 10-year hiatus caused by the generally negative reception to his 1891 painting, Tiger in a Tropical Storm.
The Hungry Lion features a jungle scene of thick green foliage lit by a deep red setting sun. In the foreground, a lion bites deeply into the neck of an antelope. Other animals are visible in the dense undergrowth: a panther watches from the right, an owl stares out of the background holding a bloody strand of meat in its beak in the centre, with a second bird to its left, and dark ape-like shape with gimlet eye lurks to the left. Rousseau based the central pair of animals on a diorama of stuffed animals at the Paris Muséum national d'histoire naturelle, entitled Senegal Lion Devouring an Antelope.
Rousseau's first jungle painting, Tiger in a Tropical Storm, was rejected by the Académie de peinture et de sculpture for their official Paris Salon, but he was able to show it at the 1891 Salon des Indépendants. Despite his increasing reputation, Rousseau continued to exhibit his works at the annual Salon des Indépendants, but The Hungry Lion was first shown at a third show, the Salon d'Automne, in 1905, alongside works by Matisse and Derain. Rousseau wrote a longer subtitle or caption to accompany his painting:
The magazine L'Illustration printed a copy of the work in its edition of 4 November 1905, with works by Matisse, Derain, Cézanne and Vuillard.
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