Henri Rousseau
French, 1844 - 1910
Unpleasant Surprise (Mauvaise surprise), 1899–1901
Oil on canvas
This work is on display in the exhibition Henri Rousseau: A Painter's Secrets in the Barnes Foundation's Roberts Gallery, October 19, 2025 through February 22, 2026 and at the Musée de l'Orangerie, March 24-July 20, 2026. The large-scale jungle scenes of Henri Rousseau are rife with violent struggles between wild animals such as lions, tigers, and horses. Here, a hunter rescues a nude bather from a sharp-clawed bear. The figure stands in a gesture of calm surrender, revealing dirty palms, while the man fires his gun at the beast. Rousseau's painting reads at first like a classic "damsel in distress." And yet the closer one looks, the stranger the picture becomes, and the harder the narrative is to decipher.
