The painting “The Repast of the Lion” was painted by the French painter Henri Rousseau in 1907. This artwork was first displayed in the Salon d’Automne in Paris, France, but is now found on the second floor of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The medium of the painting was oil paint on canvas and the dimensions are 44 3/4 x 63 in.

In the painting, the first thing that strikes me is the lion centered at the bottom with the head of a jaguar in its mouth. The lion is standing with its knees bent towards its prey and there is blood dripping from its mouth. I can also see blood found on the bodies of both animals, since both of their claws are pressing into each other.  Everything in the painting is concaving towards the middle. The large flowers and leaves are leaning towards the center and the moon is perfectly aligned with the lion. There is a lightness to darkness contrast that can be seen between the light colors of the flowers and the dark green color of the jungle. The painting also depicts the lion in relation to its landscape, as opposed to the representation of just a lion. The entire landscape contains unusually large flowers and leaves in proportion to the lion and jaguar, which makes the lion and its prey the smallest in comparison. Even though the body of the lion is stylized very small, the artist still depicted its features realistically with the big mane of hair and light brown and beige hues.  As a viewer, the situation captured in the painting is authentic since this is how lions typically eat their prey. The painting represents the lion in a fearsome way because of the blood present and the fact that it is looking directly at the viewers, as if to say, “You are next!”