Allegro Strepitoso
- Artist: Carel Weight
- Date: 1932
- Medium: Oil paint on plywood
- Dimensions: support: 699 × 921 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
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About this artwork
This is the “Allegro Strepitoso” by Carel Weight, painted in 1932. The scene shows a lion leaping out of a cage, its mane combed and eyes bright, while a woman in a red coat flutters in front of a public lavatory in London Zoo. Weight’s choice of oil on plywood gives the figures a crisp, almost cartoon‑like quality that balances the absurdity of the moment with a subtle sense of danger. The title itself—Italian for “loud, lively” in musical terms—captures the energetic, almost frantic energy of the composition.
Weight was still a student at Goldsmiths’ College when he made this piece, and the work is an early example of his characteristic humor, which would run through much of his later output. It was shown under various titles from “The Lion Escapes” to “Poor Leo” before settling on “Allegro Strepitoso.” The painting has travelled through several exhibitions, including a touring show in the 1930s and the 1940s AIA Canteen exhibition, and it has been part of the Tate collection since 1990.
Today it sits in the Archive Gallery: Artists International at Tate Britain, a quiet reminder of Weight’s playful take on the animal kingdom and the social spaces of interwar London.
See it in person
Allegro Strepitoso is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
