Had a lovely afternoon at the National Gallery this weekend. It was heavily raining, so the gallery was packed out! But we still got to see most of the paintings we set out for.
I’ve called this post ‘Rousseau’s tiger’ because his picture ‘Surprised’, my daughter’s favourite, was one whose backstory stood out. If you don’t know it, it’s of a tiger crouching in a ‘Mexican’ jungle. I put Mexican in commas because, Mexico doesn’t have any tigers! Tigers are from Bangladesh/India areas or Sumatra/Indonesia. Russia even, but no where close to Mexico!
As a keen zoologist, I spotted that straight away. Rousseau, or his fans, made up that he joined the French army and travelled to Mexico where he saw a tiger. He didn’t join the army or go to Mexico! His inspiration actually came from illustrated books and the botanical gardens in Paris, as well as tableaux of ‘taxidermified’ wild animals.
It got me thinking, this dude could paint a picture from picture book inspo, around the 1880s and it be ‘so good’ that it’s memorialised in the National Gallery 200 years later. Wow! Have I got it all wrong?? I make huge efforts to make sure that my children don’t just see tigers and other subjects on YouTube and in their story books, but that they see them in real life.
Perhaps all these gadgets and fancies aren’t what we need. Maybe we need to rewind and take inspiration for how they lived? I don’t mean we should regress and sell our fridges and washing machines, and not travel or visit the zoo to see tigers… After all, there’s only one Henri Rousseau… But take a look at what worked for them and keep hold of it.
No… I haven’t thrown out all the noisy and flashy toys LOL! But I do feel ok letting my children play by themselves with few toys like blocks and tea cups sets. Not all day… my daughter would probably go full mode in to imaginary world if it was all day… but chunks in the day, I just let her play or draw a tiger.
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