I ran down to the National Gallery just before closing, to spend time with the Van Goghs and, as it turned out, quite a few French families. Nearby was an 1891 Henri Rousseau - 'Surprised!' - a startled tiger in jungle.
Earlier in the week I'd been to the zoo. London is a city of lion statues - outside the British Museum - at the Houses of Parliament - on the coat of arms. I wanted to see the real animal, and found a family of Asian lions, dozing.
Nearby was the glass enclosure of a young male Sumatran tiger, neither dozing nor surprised but pacing endlessly, to the mystery and the delight of gathering families.
In Sumatra, the large Indonesian island, to the north of Java, these tigers are becoming endangered. 'The Jakarta Post' reports increasing 'human-tiger' conflicts as forest areas decrease, and annual forest fires blanket Singapore and parts of Malaysia in heavy smoke haze.
At closing time, I walked out of the Gallery, past the lion statues in Trafalgar Square, past the statue of Richard the Lionheart outside the Houses of Parliament, to a place just upriver of Lambeth Bridge, where I stopped and made this drawing.
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