Revised Rousseau

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Henri Rousseau
Henri Rousseau
1844-1910
French Painter
(roo-SO)
H
enri Rousseau was a French artist whose paintings served as a bridge between the
Impressionist movement and the art nouveau of the
20th century. At age 49, he quit his job as a Parisian
municipal toll collector to pursue painting full-time.
His artistic abilities were largely self-taught, and he
attracted the attention of the Parisian avant-garde at the
1886 Salon des Independents. Although the public and
critics ridiculed his work, leading writers and artists
sought out Rousseau’s paintings with their unusual
and fresh vision.
Rousseau painted scenes of Paris and its suburbs, bouquets of flowers, portraits of his friends, and forests
populated by wild and fantastic beasts. He created a
lush imaginary world that was inspired by what he
saw in advertisements and at the botanical garden in
Paris. His contemporaries regarded his work as innovative, with his figures rendered as somewhat flattened
representations occupying an unrealistically shallow
space.
While Rousseau’s work was not easily classified into
any definitive artistic style of the time, including
Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism or
Cubism, it has been considered a forerunner of
Surrealism because of its dream-like sensibility. This
look was further enhanced by Rousseau’s lack of perspective and exaggerated scale.
Vocabulary
Naï ve—Lacking worldliness and sophistication; not
learned or affected; primitive. A naïve artist is often
self-taught and his work seems simple and childlike.
Exoti c—Unusual or excitingly different in color or
design.
Landscape—A scene or view of land, such as mountains, fields and forests.
S cal e—Referring to the proportionate size of an
object in a painting in relation to other objects in the
painting, or as compared to the size of the actual
object in real life.
Revised 06/04
Art Elements
Col or—Color has three properties: hue, the name of
the color; value, the lightness or darkness of a hue; and
intensity, the purity, or saturation, of the hue. Warm
colors, from yellow to red-violet on the color wheel,
seem to advance or come forward in a work of art.
Cool colors, from yellow-green to violet on the color
wheel, seem to recede or go back into space.
Complimentary colors appear opposite each other on
the color wheel (such as orange and blue, red and
green, yellow and violet), and when used together,
they seem brighter and stronger. Rousseau created his
exotic landscapes with the use of vibrant color. He
used many shades of cool green, which he contrasted
with spots of warm red or yellow.
S hape—Shape is an area that is contained within an
implied line, or is seen because of color or value
changes. Shapes can be either geometric or organic.
They can also be positive (a figure) or negative (the
background upon which the figure rests). In
Rousseau’s paintings, organic shapes are often stylized and repeated throughout his composition.
Art Principles
Repeti ti on/ Rhythm—Repetition occurs when an
element (color, shape, line, value, space, texture)
appears more than once in an artwork. When the
repeating elements are identical or very similar, a
rhythm is established and the viewer’s eye moves
from one to another. If the spaces between repeating
elements are about even, a regular rhythm is established; if they are uneven, the rhythm is irregular. A
shape that changes in a regular way (getting lighter or
darker, bigger or smaller, more or less textured) will
create a progressive rhythm. Repetition of colors and
shapes create regular and progressive rhythms in
Rousseau’s paintings and provide visual links that
move the eye through the work.
Contrast—Contrast refers to differences in values,
colors, textures, shapes and other elements. Contrasts
create visual excitement and add interest to a work.
Rousseau’s distortion of scale creates visual contrast
between plant life and living creatures in many of his
paintings.
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Henri Rousseau
T
he artist Henri Rousseau was born in 1844 in
the city of Lavel, in northwestern France. His
student years were unremarkable; however, he did win
a competition for vocal music and one for drawing.
His interest in music continued throughout his life.
He even composed and published a waltz named for his
first wife, Clémence, whom he married in 1869. After
two stints in the military between 1864 and 1871,
Rousseau became a toll collector for the city of Paris.
His colleagues nicknamed him “Le Douanier,” which
means “customs official,” a position far grander than
the one he actually held. His simple job of collecting
taxes on goods coming into the city allowed him to
support his wife and nine children (only one of whom
reached adulthood), while giving him time to pursue
his true passion—art. From his stations at the toll
gates at the Auteuil Embankment and the Vanves
Gate, Rousseau observed the world around him and
filled numerous notebooks with drawings. He noted
that “my superiors at the tollgate used to assign me to
less demanding duties so that I would find it easier to
[paint].”
Rousseau’s wife died of tuberculosis in 1888, and in
1893, Rousseau retired from the customs service to
become a full-time artist. He settled in the Plaisance
section of Paris, a poor working-class neighborhood
behind Montparnasse. Here he found a one-room studio where he was surrounded by his art. (Rousseau
married a second time, in 1899, to a widow named
Joséphine, but sadly the marriage lasted only four
years until her death in 1903.)
Biography
Most accounts of Henri Rousseau either mention or
allude to his naïveté and his child-like innocence.
Rousseau’s paintings reflect a sense of absurdity, a
dream-like quality, and contextual ambiguity. He is
sometimes described at the master of naïve art.
Rousseau showed his paintings at several exhibitions
such as the Salon des Independants and the Salon
d’Automne. Although critics ridiculed his efforts, he
never lost confidence in his own ability and even saved
his reviews in a scrapbook. He was a favorite of the
Parisian avant-garde artists and literary figures, including artists Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Edgar Degas,
Paul Gauguin and the poet Guillaume Apollinaire.
They admired the imaginary settings, the lack of
adherence to a precise and strict style, and the dreamlike quality of Rousseau’s paintings. After his first
visit to Rousseau’s studio, the artist Max Weber wrote
that he felt he had been “favoured by the gods to meet
one of the most inspiring and precious personalities in
all Paris ...” Pablo Picasso and Wassily Kandinsky
both insisted on owning Rousseau’s works and
admired them for their simultaneously primitive and
modern qualities.
Rousseau died in 1910 at the age of 66, having
achieved the respect he sought as an artist. His paintings had begun to sell and a monograph of his work
was published the following year, further promoting
his reputation. His fantastic paintings bridged the gap
from the realistic and academic art of the nineteenth
century to the modern trends of the twentieth century.
Rousseau was essentially self-taught, often copying
art in the Louvre. He frequently strolled through the
suburbs of Paris, sketching from nature. He wrote:
“Nothing makes me happier than to contemplate
nature and to paint it. Would you believe it that when
I go out in the country and see all that sun, all that
greenery and all those flowers, I sometimes say to
myself: ‘All [of] that belongs to me, it does.’”
Bibliography
Rousseau’s explorations included visits to the hothouses at the Exposition Universelle in 1889 and the Jardin
des Plantes, a botanical garden in Paris which also
housed a zoo. There, he was able to study and draw
exotic plants and caged animals. Rousseau’s interest in
nature was translated into paintings that reveal his keen
attention to the individual details of leaves and trees,
and to various species of exotic animals.
Henri Rousseau, by Cornelia Stabenow, © 1991 by
Benedikt Taschen Berlag GmbH
Revised 06/04
“The Imaginary World of Henri Rousseau,” © by Anne
Henderson, published in School Arts (magazine) March
1, 1999
“Noble Savage (Analyzing the work of Henri Rousseau),”
© by Richard Shone, published in Artforum International
(magazine) January 1, 2001
Rousseau, edited by David Larkin, © 1975 by Ballantine
Books, New York
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Henri Rousseau
Scanning Questions
Scanning Slide
The Snake Charmer
1907, oil on canvas, 68-1/8” x 74-3/4”,
Musée DOrsay, Paris, France
Art Elements: What you see.
Color
• Are the col ors i n thi s pai nti ng mostl y cool or warm? (Cool.)
• Where do we see warm col or and how i t i s used? (The bird’s wings, yellow on the snake plants, highlights
on the snake charmer’s legs and snakes’ shapes, and the eyes and flute of the snake charmer.)
Shape
• What i s the onl y geometri c shape i n thi s pai nti ng? (The round moon.)
• What draws our attenti on to the shape of the snake charmer? (His dark shape is a positive shape set
in
front of the lighter values of the background, or negative shape.)
Art Principles: How the elements are arranged.
Rhythm/Repetition
•
Where has the arti st repeated i denti cal shapes? (The leaves in the trees; the leaves of the
snake plants in the foreground.)
• Does the repeti ti on of snake pl ants i n the foreground create a regul ar or i rregul ar rhythm?
(Irregular,
because the space between the plants is not equal or regular.)
Contrast
•
Why i s i t di ffi cul t to see some of the snakes? (There is very little contrast between the snakes and the
background.)
• Why i s i t easi er to see the snake charmer? (The dark values of his shape contrast with the lighter values of
the background behind him.)
Technical Properties: How it was made.
• What materi al s were used to create thi s pai nti ng? (Oil paints, canvas, brushes.)
• Use your hands to show how bi g you thi nk thi s pai nti ng i s.
Expressive Properties: How it makes you feel.
• How woul d you feel i f you had a snake wrapped around your neck?
• Does thi s pl ace l ook l i ke somewhere you’d l i ke to vi si t?
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Slide Images
3
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Henri Rousseau
1.
Slide List
Myself: Portrait-Landscape
1890, oil on canvas, 56-5/16” x 43-5/16”, National Gallery of Prague,
Czechoslovakia
In 1890, Rousseau painted himself into a landscape scene that revealed information about
his past and his intentions for the future. He positioned himself in the center of the composition, with his back turned to the ship and the cargo that he inspected in his job as a
customs toll collector. He depicted himself in an oversized scale that rivaled not only the
height of the ship’s mast, but also that of the Eiffel Tower (the top of the tower can be
seen to the left of the ship’s mast), which was the tallest structure in the world at the time.
Shown with the traditional accessories of a painter—the black beret, a palette, and a paintbrush—Rousseau was making an unmistakable declaration of his dedication to art.
The muted cool col ors of the background landscape create a negative shape against which
the positive shape of Rousseau’s black-clad figure rests. The contrast of his black clothing against the lighter values of the background gives emphasis to his large figure.
Contrast between the scale of the tall structures in the painting and the size of Rousseau’s
figure also emphasizes the importance that he hopes to attain in the art world.
What gives
emphasis
to Rousseaus
figure?
Fun Fact: Rousseau updated this portrait over the years. Originally he wrote the name of
his wife, Clémence on the artist’s palette. After she died, he remarried and added the name
of his second wife, Joséphine.
2.
Carnival Evening
1886, oil on canvas, 42-3/4” x 35-3/4”, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
In August of 1886, the Société des Indépendants, a group of artists including George Seurat
and Paul Signac, mounted an exhibition that was revolutionary. For a fee of fifteen francs
any artist, with or without academic training, could participate and exhibitors did not have
to pass a jury selection or meet any stylistic criteria. “Carnival Evening” was Rousseau’s
submission to this exhibition, and it created a sensation. The precise, yet cartoon-like
treatment of the trees, clouds, and people brought Rousseau critical ridicule, but the
unusual composition of the small harlequin figures in front of a forest of barren winter
trees appealed to the Post-Impressionists.
The mood of this painting is quiet, but unsettling. The figures, dressed in the costumes
of the French comic theater, shine brightly as if lit by an internal glow rather than by the
light of the moon. The moon illuminates only the clouds and the tops of the trees, leaving the ground and the forest in darkness. The contrast of the bright figures against the
darkness makes them seem to float disconnected in their surroundings. They are positive
shapes against the negative shape of the background. A dark line of trees repeats across
the bottom of the painting. This staggered repeti ti on of the trees across the horizon creates an irregular rhythm that also contributes to the unsettling mood of the painting.
Where did
Rousseau use
repetition in this
painting?
The blue sky with its brilliant white moon takes up nearly half the painting. Rousseau’s
use of col or included using orange, blue’s complement, to shade the sky and the shadows
amid the clouds.
Fun Fact: Including a perfect circle in his paintings became one of Rousseau’s trademarks.
Here it appears as a moon, but it can also represent the sun or even a soccer ball in other
paintings.
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Henri Rousseau
3.
Slide List
Surprise!
1891, oil on canvas, 50-1/2” x 63-1/2”, National Gallery, London, England
The tropical flora and fauna of Rousseau’s paintings were copied from illustrated books,
photographs, or sketched during his visits to the zoo and the many botanical gardens in
Paris. In this painting, a crouching tiger seems unusually small among the plants and
grasses in which it hides. This distortion of scale adds to the exotic feel of the painting.
Values of cool greens and blues define the lush plants and the dark sky, with accents of
yellow and white to further define the shapes of the foliage. It is said that Rousseau used
22 different greens in this painting. He also used repeated areas of the col or red to move
our eye in a triangular motion through the painting, from the tiger with his bright red lips
and gums, up to the red leaves to his right and up again to the red leaves to the left.
Diagonal brush strokes of glaze were added to simulate the driving rain of a tropical storm
(bright white diagonal streaks of lightning can also be seen through the sky).
Which color
repeats to move
your eye around
this painting?
Rousseau used contrast to emphasize the tiger. The warm color of the tiger’s coat contrasts with the cool greens of the grasses. Value contrast also draws attention to the tiger’s
fierce expression; brilliant white teeth surrounded by red lips and gums make the tiger
appear ferocious and agitated.
Fun Fact: Rousseau claimed to have served with the French army when they were sent to
Mexico by Napoleon III during the years 1861-1867. He said it was there that he acquired
first-hand knowledge of the exotic jungles in his paintings. The truth is that Rousseau
never set foot outside of France.
4.
The Sleeping Gypsy
1897, oil on canvas, 51” x 79”, Museum of Modern Art, New York
This is probably Rousseau’s most unusual and exotic work. A gypsy sleeps in the desert
under a brilliant white moon while a lion gently sniffs at her. The lack of perspective gives
this painting a naïve quality, and its flat characters seem out of scale (the woman is much
too large compared to the size of the lion). However, the imagination of the viewer in captured by this painting. Many explanations have been offered for the juxtaposition of the
sleeping woman and the lion. Is the wild animal part of the woman’s dream? Does the
painting symbolize the conflict between peace and violence? Whatever the meaning, this
painting is haunting in its beauty.
What form does
Rousseaus perfect
circle take in this
painting?
Rousseau uses contrast to make the subjects of this painting stand out. The gypsy’s dark
skin and the lion’s dark body contrast with the lighter background. The gypsy and the lion
are positive shapes against the negative shape of the barren background. Rousseau has
connected the two, however, by the repeti ti on of col or. The color of the lion’s coat is
repeated throughout the landscape, especially in the ground under the lion’s feet. This repetition provides a visual link through the entire painting.
The shape of the sleeping woman creates a soft diagonal line on the canvas. Paralleling
this line are the repeated stripes of her robe, the walking stick she holds in her hand and
in the sand next to her, her musical instrument with its white strings.
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Henri Rousseau
5.
Slide List
Child with a Puppet
1903, oil on canvas, 39-5/8” x 31-7/8”, Kunstverein, Winterthur, Switzerland
Rousseau attempted realism in his portraits, but unfortunately they look flat and cartoonlike. In this portrait, the figure faces front with the head disproportionately large. Below
the head, the hands, legs and accompanying objects are all compressed into the remaining
vertical space resulting in a body that appears out of proportion.
The lack of realistic perspective also creates a scene where the shape of the child seems
out of scale with the natural elements of the landscape. The child appears nearly as tall as
the tree to the right, and the flowers held in the child’s gown seem unusually small. Here
again, the child’s shape seems almost pasted on—a positive shape surrounded by the negative shape of the background.
The light values of the child’s skin and stark white gown contrast with the darker values
of the background and the bright col ors of the puppet. The puppet’s shirt of orange-red,
green and blue provides a vibrating complementary color contrast that gives the puppet
almost as much emphasis in the painting as does the commanding size of the child.
6.
What draws our
attention to the
puppet?
Repast of the Lion
c. 1905, oil on canvas, 44-5/8” x 63”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Rousseau painted a series of twenty-five jungle-themed paintings from 1904 until his
death in 1910. These paintings had in common oversized depictions of tropical flowers and
plants, wild animals with their prey, combat between animals, or hordes of monkeys at
play. In “Repast of the Lion,” the lion and his prey, in the center foreground, are almost
lost in the lush tropical setting.
Cool green col or dominates this painting. The green shapes of leaves and fronds are
repeated, creating a negative shape of dense vegetation that only the positive shapes of the
yellow and white flowers interrupt. The yellow-orange flowers are placed to the left and
right sides of the painting, and the same color is used to highlight the fur of the lion.
These warm colors create contrast with the cool green to give them emphasis, and their
repeti ti on creates visual linkage to move the viewer’s eyes through the painting.
Without this linkage, it is likely that the lion, scaled to an unnaturally small size compared to the size of the flowers and leaves, would remain almost unnoticed.
Revised 06/04
Where do you
see areas of
great contrast?
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Henri Rousseau
7.
Slide List
The Snake Charmer
1907, oil on canvas, 68-1/8” x 74-3/4”, Musée DOrsay, Paris, France
In this jungle scene, the dark, almost featureless shape of a snake charmer stands along a
riverbank to the left of dense green vegetation. Her positive shape stands in contrast to
the lighter, negative shape that surrounds her and makes her look almost like a silhouette
pasted onto this scene. Snakes slither at her feet, while one snake is draped around her
shoulders and another stretches out from the trees on the right.
Shades of cool green col or create the vegetation that dominates the right side of this painting. Lighter values of green provide highlights that touch the tops of leaves. This provides the necessary contrast that helps us see the dark shape of the snake concealed within the forest amid the repeti ti on of curved tree branches. Tall snake plants also repeat,
creating an irregular rhythm across the front right of the painting, with their fronds accented with warm yellow. This yellow color is used again throughout the scene: as highlight
along the back of the large snake in the trees; for the eyes the snake charmer and her flute;
and as highlights through the water and the sky on the left side of the painting.
8.
Are the shapes
in this painting
organic or
geometric?
The Football Players
1908, oil on canvas, 39-5/8” x 39”, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum,
New York
In 1908, the first international rugby match was played in Paris between France and
England. Rousseau painted this happy scene that same year. The football players almost
look like cut-out puppets; their positive shapes seem pasted onto the scene in collagelike style. Can you find Rousseau’s trademark circle shape? Rousseau confuses perspective and scale and makes us wonder which we should believe—the scale of the men or the
trees.
The playing field in the center of the painting is bordered by two rows of trees that stretch
into the distance. The trees stand at equal intervals creating a regular rhythm from the
foreground into the background. The leaves on the trees are painted in warm fall colors that
repeat on the striped uniforms of two players.
In contrast to the warm col ors of the leaves are the two football players dressed in cool
blue stripes. Normally in a work of art, cool colors seem to recede, but Rousseau chose
to dress the two players closest to the viewer with the coolest hues, negating that effect.
In addition, the complementary color contrast between the blue and orange uniforms
gives the football players emphasis and interest. The blue in the uniforms repeats in the
sky and provides visual linkage between both portions of the painting.
Point to a
positive shape.
Where is the
negative shape?
Fun Fact: The football player closest to us in the center of the painting is said to be a
self-portrait of Rousseau. There is no sun or moon in this painting, but Rousseau included his trademark circle shape. Where is it?
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Slide List
9.
The Avenue in the Park at St. Cloud
c. 1907-08, oil on canvas, 18-1/2” x 14-3/4”, Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt, Germany
During the 19th century, the Sunday ritual of the promenade was a popular leisure activity for the well-dressed family. Seeing and being seen was of social importance for the
ladies and gentlemen who strolled through the parks of Paris in their finery. Here Rousseau
has captured one such scene, and the composition of this painting is similar to that of
“The Football Players.” The avenue is bordered by rows of repeati ng trees that stretch
off into the distance creating a regular rhythm. Here again, Rousseau’s sense of scale is
skewed; the trees tower over the disproportionately small individuals who stroll the
avenue.
The composition is also dominated by triangle shapes; the blue sky at the top, the avenue
at the bottom, and the diminishing line of trees on either side all form triangle shapes that
meet in the center of the painting. Col or contrasts also draw attention to these triangular segments. The cool blue of the sky contrasts with the warmer tones of the avenue
below, and both are framed and contrasted with the mass of green leaves on either side of
the avenue.
10.
What kind of
rhythm do the
trees display?
Exotic Landscape
1908, oil on canvas, 46-1/2” x 35-5/8”, Private collection
In another of Rousseau’s tropical scenes, dark monkeys play among the lush foliage.
Several monkeys in the foreground are nearly concealed and peek out from behind the tropical greenery, as does the red sun hanging low in the sky.
Several shapes repeat throughout this painting. The organic shapes of leaves and fronds
repeat to create the dense tropical forest. Repeating orange circles (tropical fruits, perhaps?)
repeat from top to bottom in this painting and serve to move our eye around the work by
providing a visual link of warm col or that contrasts with the cool greens that dominate
the scene.
Rousseau repeated a line of white tipped snake plants across the bottom of the painting
providing an anchor for the vertical format of this scene. The bright plants visually contrast with the darker foliage and provide textural contrast with the other leaves and fronds
in the painting.
Revised 06/04
What form does
Rousseau s perfect
circle take in this
painting?
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Slide List
11.
Forest Landscape with Setting Sun
1910, oil on canvas, 45-5/8” x 65”, Kunstmuseum, Basel
In this tropical painting, Rousseau once again plays with scale. A leopard and a black figure, engaged in a struggle in the foreground of the painting, are in a scale that is disproportionately small compared with all the plant life that surrounds them. The shapes of the
man and the animal are very nearly concealed by the overly-large repeati ng leaves and
fronds in this jungle scene.
The repeated use of the color red-orange visually moves our eye around the painting, from
the small flowers in the center, to the highlights on the leopard’s coat, to the low sun in
the sky. The use of this warm col or contrasts with the cool green of the dense foliage.
What repeats
to move our
eye around this
painting?
Contrast also helps to draw our attention to the struggle between the man and the beast
in the foreground. The man’s black silhouette, a positive shape, stands in sharp contrast
to the surrounding lighter values of green that create a negative shape. Rousseau gave the
painting even more interest by contrasting the textural differences of soft flowing leaves
with sharper, more angular foliage throughout the composition.
12.
Tropical Landscape—An American Indian Struggling with
a Gorilla
1910, oil on canvas, 44-3/4” x 64”, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
The theme of man versus beast is repeated throughout Rousseau’s tropical paintings. In
this imaginative version, he combined figures from different continents—an American
Indian and a gorilla—and placed them in an exotic setting of disproportionately scaled
plants and flowers. As in Rousseau’s other paintings, the combatants are place in the foreground and are overwhelmed by the large plants and flowers that surround them.
Warm yellow-orange col or is used throughout this painting. The flowers that repeat in
an irregular rhythm horizontally across the middle of the painting are the same color that
Rousseau used for the skin tones and dress of the Indian in the foreground. This repetition
of color creates a visual linkage that brings our eye to the struggle in the foreground. The
Indian is given further emphasis by value contrast. His shape, rendered in bright warm
values, is silhouetted against a background of cool dark green to create contrast and
interest.
Which figure draws
our attention first,
the Indian or the
gorilla? Why?
Once again, Rousseau included his trademark circle. This time it is prominent sun, a positive shape surrounded by the negative shape of the pale sky.
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Slide List
13.
The Dream
1910, oil on canvas, full painting size 79-1/2” x 117-3/4”, Museum of Modern Art,
New York
In Rousseau’s final painting, we see all the elements that have come to characterize his
tropical works: cool green dominates the scene of a tropical forest, beasts peer out from
behind disproportionately large plants and flowers, warm colors create constrast that
draws our attention to details otherwise concealed within the scene.
The faces of the tigers are easy to see, thanks to the contrast between the warm colors of
their coats and the cool colors of the plants around them. The flute player would blend
into the dark background were it not for the stark contrast provided by his white musical
instrument and his colorful apron.
Repetition of leaves and fronds dominated Rousseau’s jungle paintings. In this detail,
they overlap to create a dense jungle that was, as it was in all of his exotic works, straight
out of his imagination. Again, Rousseau contrasts bold, flat shapes and textures in his
foliage with more linear leaves to create variety and interest in this imaginary jungle
scene.
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Can you find the
shape of the blue
flower repeated
elsewhere in the
painting?
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