The Reality of the Canvas
To look at the work of Félicie Tiger is to encounter the precise, unadorned traces of nineteenth-century French painting. Born Jeanne Félicie Defert in Avallon, she did not rely on abstract fame but on a disciplined technical foundation. Her training under Delorme provided the structural rigor seen in her oil works. She was a painter of specific places and tangible subjects, moving between the landscapes of her youth and the urban textures of Paris.
Her output demonstrates a command over varied genres, from the architectural decay of cityscapes to the psychological weight of portraiture. In Ruines de l'ancienne abbaye de Montmartre, dite abbaye d'en bas, she captures the physical presence of stone and shadow through oil on canvas. This is not mere decoration; it is a documented observation of a specific site held within the Musée Carnavalet. Her ability to translate the weight of ruins into a medium as fluid as oil defines her technical capability.
A Life Defined by Lineage
Tiger’s personal history is inseparable from the French artistic and professional landscape of her era. The daughter of Pierre Defert, a surgeon, and Nicole Sophie Ruffier, she moved within circles where architecture and art intersected. Her marriage to the architect Alexandre Joseph Jean-Baptiste Tiger anchored her in the Parisian 9th arrondissement, a setting that likely informed her perspective on the built environment.
Her legacy is often viewed through the lens of her family connections, yet her individual merits remain visible in her surviving pieces. Notable works include:
- Autoportrait (1840): A direct study of her own likeness held at the Musée Rolin.
- La Douleur: An oil work housed in the Château-Musée de Nemours.
- Portrait présumé de Louise Tiger (1859): A piece currently part of the Musée du Louvre collection.
Her daughter, Louise Filliaux-Tiger, achieved her own distinction as a composer and pianist. This familial environment of rigorous practice and public performance suggests that Félicie Tiger operated within a strict tradition of French excellence. She died in 1890 and was laid to rest in the Père Lachaise Cemetery, leaving behind a body of work that remains anchored in the concrete reality of her time.
