curated by Ben Vazquez ‘24 and Emerson Horne ‘24

The fantasy of big-game hunting has been depicted throughout art and media for a variety of purposes; one perspective is seen in this selection of works by Jean Despujols from the late 1930s and is situated within a larger narrative of French colonialism. Motivated by profit, France controlled various colonial assets from the beginning of the 17th century through the 1960s. One such colonie d’exploitation économique, or colony of economic exploitation, was French Indochina – present-day Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam – which they ruled from the late 1800s to 1954. France sought economic growth through intensive resource exploitation of their colonies, including establishing a demand for the hunting of exotic animals.

During this period of colonial rule emerged the Prix de l’Indochine, a French colonial art prize whose winners were hired to depict Indochina’s land, people, and cultures. The 1936 winner was Jean Despujols, whose works from his travels over the next two years are housed in the Meadows Museum’s permanent collection.

Chasing the Tiger spotlights a scene of an imagined tiger hunt, with contrived poses and cautious inclusion of plants indicative of the environment. Pencil studies show the careful construction of narrative rather than historical documentation of an actual hunt. The juxtaposition of this scene with the French tiger hunter on the other wall shows how Despujols chose to depict this ongoing narrative of big-game hunting in the region. This embellished fantasy led to increased foreigners’ hunting habits and significant legal restrictions on native practices.

Jean Despujols (French, 1886 - 1965)
Hunting the Tiger in the Dar-Lak, 1937
Ink Drawing and Color Wash

Gift of Algur H. Meadows, MMA 1969.1.186