The colors for Tiger were taken from study collages Ellsworth Kelly made from a type of colored gummed paper sold by Parisian stationers and used in French primary schools. Kelly’s use of this material reveals his particular interest in the objet trouvé (found object), which is a key to understanding his visual world. Kelly found his abstract forms and contours in the negative spaces of his natural or urban environment. During the period when this was painted, Kelly spent a lot of time looking at art and architecture in Europe. The geometric structures he saw probably provided source material for Tiger, however indirect.