Henri Rousseau | Biography, Art, Post-Impressionist, Naïve Painter, & Facts (2024)

French painter

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Also known as: Le Douanier

Written by

Dora Vallier Art critic. Author of Henri Rousseau: Catalogue raisonné de l&hamzah;oeuvre; Henri Rousseau; and others.

Dora Vallier

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Last Updated: Article History

Henri Rousseau:

Myself: Portrait-Landscape

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Byname:
le Douanier (French: “the Customs Officer”)
Born:
May 21, 1844, Laval, France
Died:
Sept. 2, 1910, Paris (aged 66)
Movement / Style:
Der Blaue Reiter

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Henri Rousseau (born May 21, 1844, Laval, France—died Sept. 2, 1910, Paris) was a French painter who is considered the archetype of the modern naive artist. He is known for his richly colored and meticulously detailed pictures of lush jungles, wild beasts, and exotic figures. After exhibiting with the Fauves in 1905, he gained the admiration of avant-garde artists.

Early life

Rousseau, the son of a tinsmith, came from a modest background. He was a mediocre student, and he left the secondary school in Laval without having completed his studies. He soon entered military service, in which he remained for four years. During his term of service he met soldiers who had survived the French expedition to Mexico (1862–65) in support of Emperor Maximilian, and he listened with fascination to their recollections. Their descriptions of the subtropical country were doubtless the first inspiration for the exotic landscapes that later became one of his major themes. The vividness of Rousseau’s portrayals of jungle scenes led to the popular conception, which Rousseau never refuted, that he traveled to Mexico. In fact, he never left France.

Civil service career and early paintings

Released from military service upon the death of his father (to support his widowed mother), Rousseau settled in 1868 in Paris. The following year he married Clémence Boitard, the daughter of a cabinetmaker. In Paris he began a career as a petty official, eventually (in 1871) becoming a tax collector in the Paris toll office; from this post came the name by which he was well known in later years, le Douanier (“the Customs Officer”), in spite of the fact that the toll office had no real customs functions. Working as a bureaucrat and busy with family affairs, he still somehow found time to draw and paint. Although no works remain as evidence, he had probably drawn and painted since childhood, and his stated ambition was to be a painter in the style of the academicians of his day. In 1884 he obtained permission to copy paintings at the Louvre. In 1886 he exhibited some of his first paintings, not at the official Salon, which would never have admitted a painter of such naiveté, but at the Salon des Indépendants; this annual exhibition was established by young painters to allow themselves and others a chance to exhibit free from the narrow official Salon requirements of style and subject matter.

(Impressionist or not? Find out in our list of Artists Mistaken for Impressionists.)

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The picture with which Rousseau made his debut at the Salon des Indépendants, Carnival Evening (1886), was a masterpiece of its kind and an impressive beginning for the artist. The approach to representation that he employed in this work is typical of “naive art.” Everything is literally and deliberately drawn—every branch of the trees is traced, the clouds have a curious solidity, and greater attention is paid to the details of costume than to the figures themselves. The design of Rousseau’s painting, however, is effectively poetic, and he achieved a striking quality of atmosphere and mood through his accurate and sensitive observation of the colors of the evening.

In spite of this auspicious beginning, Rousseau’s work still went largely unnoticed, except for the consistent ridicule of the critics, for the next seven years. During this period he exhibited some 20 paintings at the Salon des Indépendants, but he remained essentially an amateur, dividing his time among painting, work at the toll house, and family life. His wife, who had been ill for some time, died in 1888, and within several years he lost all of his family except for a daughter, whom he sent to live with relatives.

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This period of personal hardship was also a period of increased artistic activity for Rousseau. An important event in his life at this time was the Universal Exposition held in Paris in 1889; it is probable that the reconstructions of Senegalese, Tonkinese, and Tahitian landscapes at the exposition provided further inspiration for the exoticism of his later paintings. Rousseau’s enthusiasm for the fair was so great that he wrote a vaudeville play entitled A Visit to the Exposition of 1889, which he did not succeed in having produced. In this play, as in other theatrical works he wrote, his naiveté revealed itself even more than in the technical aspects of his painting. Also revealed, however, was his intense desire to express himself artistically; he even attempted to compose music. Still, his only great gift was for painting.

The most important work of this period in Rousseau’s career is his self-portrait, Myself: Portrait-Landscape (1890). Standing in the foreground, palette in hand, Rousseau is surrounded by the Parisian landscape, which is painted with great accuracy. This was obviously intended as a “portrait of the artist” in the academic tradition; the seriousness of purpose is impressive in spite of the naiveté of execution.

Henri Rousseau | Biography, Art, Post-Impressionist, Naïve Painter, & Facts (2024)

FAQs

Henri Rousseau | Biography, Art, Post-Impressionist, Naïve Painter, & Facts? ›

Henri Rousseau (born May 21, 1844, Laval, France—died Sept. 2, 1910, Paris) was a French painter who is considered the archetype of the modern naive artist

naive artist
Naïve art is recognized, and often imitated, for its childlike simplicity and frankness. Paintings of this kind typically have a flat rendering style with a rudimentary expression of perspective.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Naïve_art
. He is known for his richly colored and meticulously detailed pictures of lush jungles, wild beasts, and exotic figures.

What type of art did Henri Rousseau paint? ›

Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (French: [ɑ̃ʁi ʒyljɛ̃ feliks ʁuso]; 21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910) was a French post-impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner.

What was so unique about Rousseau's style of painting? ›

Largely self-taught, Rousseau developed a style that evidenced his lack of academic training, with its absence of correct proportions, one-point perspective, and use of sharp, often unnatural colors. Such features resulted in a body of work imbued with a sense of mystery and eccentricity.

What style of art is the dream Henri Rousseau? ›

Henri Rousseau's “The Dream,” created in 1910, is a notable work of the Naïve Art movement, particularly Primitivism. This oil on canvas measures an impressive 298.5 by 204.5 cm and can be classified as an allegorical painting.

What are the characteristics of naive art? ›

Naïve art is characterised by childlike simplicity of execution and vision. As such it has been valued by modernists seeking to get away from what they see as the insincere sophistication of art created within the traditional system.

Why did Henri Rousseau paint Tiger in a tropical storm? ›

He (Rousseau's tiger) is derived from a motif found in the drawings and paintings of Eugène Delacroix. It was claimed, either by Rousseau himself or by his friends and admirers, that he had experienced life in the jungle during his time in Mexico in 1860, where he had served as a regimental bandsman.

How much is Rousseau painting worth? ›

Henri Rousseau's work has been offered at auction multiple times, with realized prices ranging from 14 USD to 43,535,000 USD, depending on the size and medium of the artwork.

Why did Rousseau paint jungles? ›

Rousseau went to botanical gardens and zoos, studied exotic plants and animals, used illustrations in books and his drawings, and used his imagination as inspiration for Tropical Forest with Monkeys.

Who are the painters similar to Rousseau? ›

The term "primitivism" is often applied to other professional painters working in the style of naïve or folk art like Henri Rousseau, Mikhail Larionov, Paul Klee and others.

Which is a main quality of expressionism? ›

Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Expressionist artists have sought to express the meaning of emotional experience rather than physical reality.

How did the lack of training affect both Rodin and Rousseau? ›

Final answer: The lack of formal training for both Rodin and Rousseau influenced their unique artistic styles, allowing them to break from tradition and experiment with new techniques. Despite this lacking, both are considered pioneers in their respective fields.

Where is the dream by Henri Rousseau? ›

It was sold through Knoedler Galleries in New York to clothing manufacturer and art collector Sidney Janis in January 1934. Janis sold the painting to Nelson A. Rockefeller in 1954, who donated it to the Museum of Modern Art, New York to celebrate the Museum's 25th anniversary. It remains on display at MoMA.

What colors did Henri Rousseau use? ›

Orange-greens, red-greens, yellow-greens, and more, each painted carefully in overlapping strips. Green's complementary colour, red, is also strikingly used on the right, balancing out the dominance of the tiger on the left. This is the first of Rousseau's jungle paintings.

What art style is associated with Henri Rousseau NYT? ›

The NAÏVE art style is associated with Henri Rousseau. According to Tate.com, “naïve art is characterized by childlike simplicity of execution and vision.”

When did Henri Rousseau paint The Dream? ›

Narrator: The artist Henri Rousseau painted The Dream in 1910, using oil paint on canvas. The work measures about 7 feet high and 10 feet wide. In metric units, it is about 205 centimeters high and 299 centimeters wide.

How many kids did Henri Rousseau have? ›

With his father's death, Rousseau moved to Paris in 1868 to support his widowed mother as a government employee. In 1868, he married Clémence Boitard, his landlord's 15-year-old daughter, with whom he had six children (only one survived).

Did Henri Rousseau travel? ›

He never saw combat and did not travel outside France, but his colleagues' adventures in Mexico inspired him to create legends of his own foreign journeys. Upon his father's death in 1868, Rousseau left the army.

Why is Henri Rousseau important? ›

2, 1910, Paris) was a French painter who is considered the archetype of the modern naive artist. He is known for his richly colored and meticulously detailed pictures of lush jungles, wild beasts, and exotic figures. After exhibiting with the Fauves in 1905, he gained the admiration of avant-garde artists.

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