Henri Rousseau
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Henri Julien Félix Rousseau ({{#invoke:IPA|main}}; 21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910)<ref name=gugg>Henri Rousseau biography Template:Webarchive at the Guggenheim</ref> was a French post-impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner.<ref>Artillerymen by Rousseau at the Guggenheim</ref><ref name=hri>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He was also known as Le Douanier (the customs officer), a humorous description of his occupation as a toll and tax collector.<ref name=gugg/> He started painting seriously in his early forties; by age 49, he retired from his job to work on his art full-time.<ref name=inimaginary/>
Ridiculed during his lifetime by critics, he came to be recognized as a self-taught genius whose works are of high artistic quality.<ref>Rousseau at the National Gallery of Art</ref><ref name=gb8>Template:Cite book</ref> Rousseau's work exerted an extensive influence on several generations of avant-garde artists.<ref name=inimaginary>Roberta Smith (14 July 2006) "Henri Rousseau: In imaginary jungles, a terrible beauty lurks" The New York Times. Accessed 14 July 2006</ref>
BiographyEdit
Early lifeEdit
Rousseau was born in Laval, Mayenne, France, in 1844 into the family of a tinsmith; he was forced to work there as a young child.<ref>Henri Rousseau biography, Princeton Template:Webarchive</ref> He attended Laval High School as a day student, and then as a boarder after his father became a debtor and his parents had to leave the town upon the seizure of their house. Though mediocre in some of his high school subjects, Rousseau won prizes for drawing and music.<ref name=Vallier>Henri Rousseau, (1979), Dora Vallier</ref>
After high school, he worked for a lawyer and studied law, but "attempted a small perjury and sought refuge in the army."<ref>Karen Lee Spaulding (ed.) Masterworks at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, (1999), first published as 125 Masterpieces from the Collection of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery (1987). Hudson Hills Press / Albright-Knox Art Gallery. p. 72. Template:ISBN</ref> He served four years, starting in 1863. With his father's death, Rousseau moved to Paris in 1868 to support his widowed mother as a government employee.Template:Citation needed
In 1868, he married Clémence Boitard, his landlord's 15-year-old daughter, with whom he had six children (only one survived). In 1871, he was appointed as a collector of the octroi of Paris, collecting taxes on goods entering Paris. His wife died in 1888 and he married Josephine Noury in 1898.Template:Citation needed
CareerEdit
From 1886, he exhibited regularly in the Salon des Indépendants, and, although his work was not placed prominently, it drew an increasing following over the years. Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!) was exhibited in 1891, and Rousseau received his first serious review when the young artist Félix Vallotton wrote: "His tiger surprising its prey ought not to be missed; it's the alpha and omega of painting." Yet it was more than a decade before Rousseau returned to depicting his vision of jungles.<ref name=inimaginary/>
In 1893, Rousseau moved to a studio in Montparnasse where he lived and worked until his death in 1910.<ref>Tate Modern | Past Exhibitions | Henri Rousseau | Artistic Circle Template:Webarchive at www.tate.org.uk</ref> In 1897, he produced one of his most famous paintings, La Bohémienne endormie (The Sleeping Gypsy).
In 1905, Rousseau's large jungle scene The Hungry Lion Throws Itself on the Antelope was exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants near works by younger leading avant-garde artists such as Henri Matisse, in what is now seen as the first showing of The Fauves. Rousseau's painting may even have influenced the naming of the Fauves.<ref name=inimaginary/>
In 1907, he was commissioned by artist Robert Delaunay's mother, Berthe, Comtesse de Delaunay, to paint The Snake Charmer.Template:Citation needed
Le Banquet RousseauEdit
When Pablo Picasso happened upon a painting by Rousseau being sold on the street as a canvas to be painted over, the younger artist instantly recognised Rousseau's genius and went to meet him. In 1908, Picasso held a half serious, half burlesque banquet in his studio at Le Bateau-Lavoir in Rousseau's honour.<ref name=gugg /> Le Banquet Rousseau, "one of the most notable social events of the twentieth century," wrote American poet and literary critic John Malcolm Brinnin, "was neither an orgiastic occasion nor even an opulent one. Its subsequent fame grew from the fact that it was a colorful happening within a revolutionary art movement at a point of that movement's earliest success, and from the fact that it was attended by individuals whose separate influences radiated like spokes of creative light across the art world for generations."<ref name="Brinnin">John Malcolm Brinnin, The Third Rose, Gertrude Stein and Her World, An Atlantic Monthly Press Book, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, Toronto, 1959</ref>
Guests at the banquet Rousseau included: Guillaume Apollinaire, Jean Metzinger, Juan Gris, Max Jacob, Marie Laurencin, André Salmon, Maurice Raynal, Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler, Leo Stein, and Gertrude Stein.<ref name="Monet to Moore">Template:Cite book</ref>
Maurice Raynal, in Les Soirées de Paris, 15 January 1914, p. 69, wrote about "Le Banquet Rousseau".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Years later the French writer André Salmon recalled the setting of the illustrious banquet:
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Retirement and deathEdit
After Rousseau's retirement in 1893, he supplemented his small pension with part-time jobs and work such as playing a violin in the streets. He also worked briefly at Le petit Journal, where he produced a number of its covers.<ref name=inimaginary/>
An equally famous work by Rousseau, included in the collection of John Hay Whitney, is Tropical Forest with Monkeys, which was painted during the last months of his life. It shows one of his signature exotic landscapes, lush, tropical, and virgin. Many of the animals in Rousseau's images have human faces or attributes. The central monkeys in this painting hold green sticks from which strings appear to dangle, suggesting fishing poles and human leisure activities, thereby emphasizing the quasi-human experience of the animals. In this sense Rousseau's anthropomorphized primates can be seen not as true wild beasts, but rather as representing an escape from the "jungle" of Paris and the everyday grind of civilized life.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>
Rousseau exhibited his final painting, The Dream, in March 1910, at the Salon des Independants.
In the same month Rousseau suffered a phlegmon in his leg, one which he ignored.<ref>Yann Le Pichon (1982) The World of Henri Rousseau. Phaidon Press Ltd. Oxford. Template:ISBN</ref> In August, when he was admitted to the Necker Hospital<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> in Paris where his son had died, he was found to have gangrene in his leg. After an operation, he died from a blood clot on 2 September 1910.
At his funeral, seven friends stood at his grave: the painters Paul Signac and Manuel Ortiz de Zárate; the artist couple Robert Delaunay and Sonia Terk; the sculptor Constantin Brâncuși; Rousseau's landlord Armand Queval, and Guillaume Apollinaire, who wrote the epitaph Brâncuși put on the tombstone:
<poem>
We salute you Gentle Rousseau you can hear us. Delaunay, his wife, Monsieur Queval and myself. Let our luggage pass duty free through the gates of heaven. We will bring you brushes, paints and canvas. That you may spend your sacred leisure in the light and Truth of Painting. As you once did my portrait facing the stars, lion and the gypsy.
</poem>
ArtistryEdit
PaintingsEdit
Rousseau claimed he had "no teacher other than nature",<ref name=hri/> although he admitted he had received "some advice" from two established Academic painters, Félix Auguste Clément and Jean-Léon Gérôme.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Essentially, he was self-taught and is considered to be a naïve or primitive painter.
His best-known paintings depict jungle scenes, even though he never left France or saw a jungle. Stories spread by admirers that his army service included the French expeditionary force to Mexico are unfounded. His inspiration came from illustrations in children's books<ref>Shannon Porter (2015) Art History. (Symbolism, frame 57)</ref> and the botanical gardens in Paris, as well as tableaux of taxidermy wild animals. During his term of service, he had also met soldiers who had survived the French expedition to Mexico, and he listened to their stories of the subtropical country they had encountered. To the critic Arsène Alexandre, he described his frequent visits to the Jardin des Plantes: "When I go into the glass houses and I see the strange plants of exotic lands, it seems to me that I enter into a dream."
Along with his exotic scenes there was a concurrent output of smaller topographical images of the city and its suburbs.
He claimed to have invented a new genre of portrait landscape, which he achieved by starting a painting with a specific view, such as a favourite part of the city, and then depicting a person in the foreground, most notably his early Myself, Portrait-Landscape (1890).
Criticism and recognitionEdit
Rousseau's flat, seemingly childish style was disparaged by many critics; people often were shocked by his work or ridiculed it.<ref name=gb8/><ref name=gb10>Henri Rousseau, 1844–1910 By Cornelia Stabenow page 10</ref> His ingenuousness was extreme, and he always aspired, in vain, to conventional acceptance. Many observers commented that he painted like a child, but the work shows sophistication with his particular technique.<ref name=hri/><ref name=gb8/>
LegacyEdit
Rousseau's work exerted an extensive influence on several generations of avant-garde artists, including Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Fernand Léger, Jean Metzinger, Max Beckmann, and the Surrealists. According to Roberta Smith, an art critic writing in The New York Times, "Beckmann’s amazing self-portraits, for example, descend from the brusque, concentrated forms of Rousseau’s portrait of the writer Pierre Loti."<ref name=inimaginary/><ref name="Moser">Joann Moser (1985) "Pre-Cubist Works, 1904–1909" in Jean Metzinger in Retrospect. The University of Iowa Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Trust, University of Washington Press. pp. 34, 35. Template:ISBN</ref>
In 1911, a retrospective exhibition of Rousseau's works was shown at the Salon des Indépendants. His paintings were also shown at the first Blaue Reiter exhibition.Template:Citation needed
Critics have noted the influence of Rousseau on Wallace Stevens's poetry. See, for instance, Stevens's "Floral Decorations for Bananas" in the collection Harmonium.Template:Citation needed
The American poet Sylvia Plath was a great admirer of Rousseau, referencing his art, as well as drawing inspiration from his works in her poetry. The poem, "Yadwigha, on a Red Couch, Among Lilies" (1958), is based upon his painting, The Dream, whilst the poem "Snakecharmer" (1957) is based upon his painting The Snake Charmer.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
The song "The Jungle Line", by Joni Mitchell, is based upon a Rousseau painting.<ref>The Jungle Line. jonimitchell.com</ref>
Underground comic artist Bill Griffith drew a four-page biographical sketch of Rousseau, A Couch in the Sun, which was included in issue #2 of the Arcade anthology.Template:Citation needed
The visual style of Michel Ocelot's 1998 animation film, Kirikou and the Sorceress, is partly inspired by Rousseau, particularly the depiction of the jungle vegetation.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
A Rousseau painting was used as an inspiration for the 2005 animated film Madagascar.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
Rousseau's 1908 painting Fight Between a Tiger and a Buffalo was used as the inspiration for a series of 2021 advertisements concerning the rebrand of Facebook into the metaverse company Meta.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>
ExhibitionsEdit
Two major museum exhibitions of his work were held in 1984–85 (in Paris, at the Grand Palais; and in New York, at the Museum of Modern Art) and in 2001 (Tübingen, Germany). "These efforts countered the persona of the humble, oblivious naïf by detailing his assured single-mindedness and tracked the extensive influence his work exerted on several generations of vanguard artists," critic Roberta Smith wrote in a review of a later exhibition.<ref name=inimaginary/>
A major exhibition of his work, "Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris", was shown at the Tate Modern from 3 November 2005 to 5 February 2006, organised by the Tate and the Musée d'Orsay, where the show also appeared. The exhibition, encompassing 48 of his paintings, was on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington from 16 July to 15 October 2006 and at the Grand Palais in Paris from 15 March to 19 June 2006.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
GalleryEdit
- Henri-Julien-Félix Rousseau, French - Carnival Evening - Google Art Project.jpg
A Carnival Evening, 1886, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
- Henri Rousseau - Myself- Portrait – Landscape - Google Art Project.jpg
Self Portrait, 1890, National Gallery Prague
- Henri Rousseau - Le Moulin.jpg
Le Moulin (The Mill), c. 1896, Musée Maillol, Paris
- Boy on the Rocks - 1895-7 - Henri Rousseau.jpg
Boy on the Rocks, 1895–1897, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
- La Bohémienne endormie.jpg
The Sleeping Gypsy, 1897, MoMA, New York
- Douanier Rousseau tour Eiffel.jpg
La tour Eiffel peinte par Henri Rousseau, 1898, Houston Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
- Henri Rousseau - Self-portrait of the Artist with a Lamp.jpg
Self-portrait of the Artist with a Lamp, 1903
- Henri Rousseau - The Merry Jesters.jpg
The Merry Jesters, 1906, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA
- Henri Rousseau - The Flamingoes.jpg
The Flamingoes, 1907, Private collection
- HENRI ROUSSEAU - La Encantadora de Serpientes (Museo de Orsay, París, 1907. Óleo sobre lienzo, 169 x 189.5 cm).jpg
The Snake Charmer, 1907, Musée d'Orsay, Paris
- Rousseau theRepastOfTheLion.jpg
The Repast of the Lion, c.1907, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
- Henri Rousseau - Exotic Landscape.jpg
Exotic Landscape, 1908, Private collection
- Henri Rousseau - Fight Between a Tiger and a Buffalo.jpg
Fight Between a Tiger and a Buffalo, 1908, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
- Henri Rousseau - Vue de pont de Sèvres.jpg
View of the Bridge in Sevres and the Hills of Clamart, Saint-Cloud and Bellevue with biplane, balloon and dirigible, 1908, Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts
- Henri Rousseau - Combat of a Tiger and a Buffalo.jpg
In a Tropical Forest Combat of a Tiger and a Buffalo, 1908–1909, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg
- Henri Rousseau - The Football Players.jpg
The Football Players, 1908, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
- La muse inspirant le poète.jpg
Muse Inspiring the Poet (Portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire and Marie Laurencin), 1909, Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland
- The Equatorial Jungle.JPG
The Equatorial Jungle, 1909, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
- Henri Rousseau - Bouquet of Flowers (Tate Gallery).jpg
Bouquet of Flowers, 1910, Tate Gallery, London
- Henri Rousseau - Portrait de Monsieur X.jpg
Pierre Loti, 1910, Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland
ReferencesEdit
Further readingEdit
- Much of the information in this article was taken from Henri Rousseau Jungles in Paris, The Tate Gallery, pamphlet accompanying the 2005 exhibition.
- The Banquet Years, by Roger Shattuck (includes an extensive Rousseau essay)
- Henri Rousseau, 1979, Dora Vallier (general illustrated essay)
- Henri Rousseau, 1984, The Museum of Modern Art New York (essays by Roger Shattuck, Henri Béhar, Michel Hoog, Carolyn Lanchner, and William Rubin; includes excellent color plates and analysis)
External linksEdit
- Henrirousseau.org, 118 works by Henri Rousseau
- Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris, at the National Gallery of Art Template:Webarchive
- Rousseau text written for young readers Brief introduction to the artist's life and art. Entry contains links to two large reproductions of Rousseau paintings in the National Gallery of Art, a 4th grade lesson relating Rousseau's paintings to ecology, and hands-on activities suitable for classroom or home study.
- Ten Dreams Galleries
- The Sleeping Gypsy in the MoMA Online Collection
Template:Henri Rousseau Template:Post-Impressionism Template:Authority control (arts)