Black Panther Stalking a Herd of Deer

Gérôme had yet to travel outside Europe when he painted this imaginary landscape, which strands its panther—a jungle cat—in unlikely open terrain along a scrubby shore. Fascinated by large cats, Gérôme studied lions and tigers at the Jardin des Plantes, a Parisian zoo. He went on to hunt big game in North Africa and maintained a menagerie of exotic animals at his own home in the 1880s and 90s.