Tiger fables. 20 water colours by Uffe Christoffersen (416 Kb PDF)

TIGER FABLES

Tiger fables is a common title I have given to my water colours which are inspired by 20 of Jean de la Fontaine’s fables. It is only a small selection from his very great works from the 17th century.

Through a deep study of these selected fables I experienced how profound their content was, and I was moved to interpret them in my own way. And they became paintings…

During my work with the animal fables I have had many experiences in relation to the world we live in. They are partly the great international political problems, and partly the intimate daily situations, which I have experienced in a different way seen in the light of the fables….

To get as close as possible to the original text I have read it in the original language. That is ancient French, but it was lucky for me that Anna Christoffersen made a translation into Danish, as well as writing a short text to each picture. La Fontaine’s fables were originally written in verse and are often very cryptic, almost surrealistic. There are ambiguities in the selection of animals; they can have different symbolic meanings than they have in a Danish context.

Through the numerous drawings and water colours I have done in the last 9 months, I have moved further and further into my own world of fables. Thus the Lion has become the Tiger.

I have consciously chosen certain fables which make up an “animal of prey’s” lifetime, taken together. The water colour “The Tiger” is inspired by the fable called “Le Lion” which is about a lion cub growing up and the other animals’ attitude to it during its growth. The water colours “The Tiger goes to War”, “The Tiger and the Donkey out Hunting”, “The Tiger’s Court” and others have taken their inspiration from “Le lion s’allant en guerre”, “Le lion et l’ane chassant”, “La cour de lion” and are about the grown-up tiger and its relationship to the other animals relative to their different mentalities. Finally there is “The Tiger who got old” (Le lion devenu vieux) which depicts the aging tiger experiencing how the other animals humiliate it.

In all the fables it is constantly a question of who is the strongest, and treats the psychological game between animals….or human beings. However it is not always about who is the largest, as seen in the fables “Le lion et le moucheron” and “Le lion et le rat”. They have inspired the water colours “The tiger and the gadfly” and “The Tiger and the Rat”.

We share like tigers do:
One share to the ruler
One share to the tiger
One share to the strongest
One share to the greedy
So the tiger gets the lot!

When the tiger asked around to find out how one should look at self-satisfaction,
the monkey told him about the two donkeys: one praised the other because he was a donkey!
 

A boastful person thinks his best friend is inside a tiger.
He wants revenge. One look at the animal gives him second thoughts.

The lonely person who knows that the tiger will be his fate,
Goes to his grave, wounded by a nail, on which there hangs a picture of a tiger.

When a mother loses her child it is a shame.
When a tigress loses her cub, it is definitely fate pursuing her.
But look at yourself, - maybe you are a tigress.

It is immoral to flatter the dead.
To lie to the mourners about angels singing and salvation is disgusting.
But what should one do – when the widower is a tiger and you are a deer yourself?
 

The tiger asks the animals to visit his sick bed. The fox does not come.
The other guests’ footprints all lead the same way, into the tiger’s belly.

Odysseus’ crew were changed into animals.
By cunning the hero was able to change them back to their natural shape,
But who says that it is better to be a human than an animal?
Not Odysseus’ crew: they preferred their new shapes.

A shepherd had lost a sheep.
He laid out some wolf traps and laughed arrogantly.
When a tiger fell into a trap he laughed on the other side of his face.

Many pictures depict tiger hunting, always to the human’s advantage.
As the tiger himself says: The subject matter would be completely different if tigers could paint.

His tigerly highness holds court in his cave full of carcasses.
The bear holds his nose.
The monkey praises the ‘perfume’
The fox has a cold.
The fox survives.

A ruler who is good towards even the smallest creature will receive ten-fold in return.
Even a rat can help.

A donkey in a tiger skin creates panic.
But when a piece of ear pokes out, a tiger hunt begins…

Leopard the Sultan is not afraid of his neighbour the tiger. It is just a cub.
He is forgetting that cubs grow up.

An old tiger must put up with many things.
But when the donkey joins the choir of scornful subjects, it is the final straw!

When the tiger is sick, the court is happy. They can all strut about.
The wolf remarks the absence of the fox.
The fox arrives and extols the virtues of a healing wolf skin...

When the tiger is going to war, everyone must take part.
From the stupidest donkey to the smallest hare.

For love the tiger gets its teeth and claws filed down: then it is gentle
To its beloved….
But also to its executioners.

A gad-fly is an irritating creature. It can even drive a tiger mad.
Some people think it even enjoys it. It is a different kettle of fish when it is stuck in the spider’s web...