Invariably known as "Le Douanier" Rousseau, a reference to his job with the Paris customs authority, Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) is the most celebrated of all naive artists. His stunningly colorful and imaginative jungle scenes are among the most instantly memorable images of the late nineteenth century.
Rousseau took up painting as a hobby, a diversion from checking goods at the gates of Paris, and taught himself to draw using pocket notebooks, with the suburbs of Paris as his subject-matter...
Rousseau took up painting as a hobby, a diversion from checking goods at the gates of Paris, and taught himself to draw using pocket notebooks, with the suburbs of Paris as his subject-matter. He retired early, aged 49, to concentrate on painting,by which time seven of his nine children were already dead, several of them from tuberculosis. From 1885, Rousseau exhibited sporadically with the Salon des Independants, but was never accepted by the art establishment. The innocence and charm of his work did, however, win him the admiration of the avant-garde. Picasso bought Rousseau"s Portrait of a Woman in a junk shop and held a banquet in his honor, while Hungry Lion was hung in the Salon d"Automne alongside the work of Matisse, Derain and Vlaminck.
Rousseau provides a fascinating and richly illustrated overview of the work of an unsophisticated and yet enigmatic artist.An illustrated introduction details his difficult, poverty-stricken life, and is followed by over 70 glorious, fullcolor plates representing the full range of Rousseau"s work, from the jaunty humor of The Football Players to solemn portraiture, from minutely detailed urban landscapes to the lush foliage and mysteriously lurking figures of his dreamy jungle scenes. This sumptuous volume will inform, astonish and delight any art-lover.
Introduction
The Edge of the Forest
View of the lie St-Louis
The Toll-House
Rendezvous in the Forest
Myself, Portrait-Landscape
Portrait of Pierre Loti
Tropical Storm with a Tiger
(Surprise[)
Artillerymen
The Young Girl
War
Boy on the Rocks
Portrait of a Woman
The Bievre at Gentilly
Landscape with Cattle
Bouquet of Flowers
Portrait of a Woman
The Tiger Hunt
The Watermill
The Cliff
Boat in the Storm
The Farmyard
The Chair Factory at AlfortviUe
Self-Portrait With a Lamp
Portrait of Rousseau’s Second Wife
The Artist Painting His Wife
Happy Quartet
House on the Outskirts of Paris
Child with a Puppet
Child with a Doll
The Country Wedding
Woman in Red in the Forest
Eve
The Pink Candle
Merry Jesters
Liberty Inviting the Artists to Take
Part in the 22nd Salon des
Independants
Strollers in a Park
The Snake Charmer
The Repast of the Lion
Representatives of Foreign Powers
Come to Salute the Republic as a
Peaceful Gesture
Alley in the Park St. Cloud
The Football Players
The Jungle: Tiger Attacking a Buffalo
View of the Bridge at Sevres
Battle Between a Buffalo and a Tiger
View of Malakoff
The Quay of lvry
The Fishermen and the Biplane
Banks of the Oise
Pere Juniet’s Cart
The Muse Inspiring the Poet
The Chair Factory at Alfortville
Flowers in a Vase
The Banks of the Bievre near Bicetre
The Muse Inspiring the Poet
Notre Dame
The Luxembourg Garden
Tropical Landscape: an American
Indian Struggling with an Ape
Exotic Landscape
Meadowland
The Waterfall
Forest Landscape with Setting Sun
A Horse Attacked by a Jaguar
Tropical Forest with Monkeys
Acknowledgments