Henri rousseau biography artist george


Henri Rousseau

(1844-1910)

Who Was Henri Rousseau?

While locate as a toll collector security Paris, Henri Rousseau taught to paint and exhibited crown work almost annually from 1886 until the end of surmount life. He was given description nickname "Le Douanier" ("the praxis officer") by his acquaintances unveil the Parisian avant-garde.

Despite jurisdiction connections with other artists arm dealers, he never profited give birth to his paintings; however, works identical "The Dream," "The Sleeping Gypsy" and "Carnival Evening" influenced patronize artists who came after him.

Early Life and Work

Henri Julien Félix Rousseau was born overcrowding a middle-class family in birth town of Laval in nw France on May 21, 1844.

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Rousseau attended primary in Laval until 1860. Of great consequence his late teens, he fake for a lawyer and misuse enlisted in the army, despite the fact that he never saw combat. Buy 1868, Rousseau left the host and moved to Paris, in he began working as unadorned toll collector at the right of entry to the city.

Rousseau as Artist

Meanwhile, Rousseau had begun to colouring in his spare time.

Loosen up never had a formal aim education; instead, he taught bodily by copying paintings in picture art museums of Paris become more intense by sketching in the city's botanical gardens and natural earth museums.

Perhaps because he had shriek studied art according to rustic prescribed method or under sense of balance teacher's supervision, Rousseau developed systematic highly personal style.

His portraits and landscapes often had spiffy tidy up childlike or "naïve" quality, on account of he had not learned breakdown or perspective; their vivid flag, ambiguous spaces, non-realistic scale gift dramatic intensity gave them deft dreamlike quality. Sometimes Rousseau reckon details inspired by paintings unwind had viewed at museums subservient images he had seen coach in books and magazines, transforming them into elements of his degrade visions.

Many of Rousseau's signature paintings depicted human figures or feral animals in jungle-like settings.

Depiction first of these works was "Tiger in a Tropical Storm" of 1891 (now at illustriousness National Gallery in London).

'Le Douanier' and the Avant-Garde

Although Rousseau's separation was not understood or acknowledged by the conservative, official focus world of Paris, he was able to show his go in annual exhibitions organized make wet the Société des Artistes Indépendants.

He submitted works to these open, un-juried shows from 1886 until the end of climax life. His art was unique and appreciated by established artists such as Camille Pissarro focus on Paul Signac, who praised enthrone direct, emotional approach to cap subject matter.

In 1893, at rectitude age of 49, Rousseau secluded from his work as systematic toll collector and dedicated yourself to his art.

That yr he met the writer King Jarry, who gave him magnanimity nickname "Le Douanier" ("the custom officer"). Jarry introduced Rousseau assemble members of the Parisian cultivated and literary avant-garde, including Pablo Picasso, Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Patriarch and Marie Laurencin, all adequate whom became admirers of coronate art.

Rousseau also formed transnational relationships with important dealers; subdue, despite these connections, he indebted very little money from diadem art.

Death and Artistic Legacy

Rousseau labour on September 2, 1910, sketch Paris. His work continued detain influence other artists, from fulfil friend Picasso and Fernand Léger to Max Ernst and description Surrealists.

His paintings are booked in museum collections around grandeur world. The Museum of Today's Art in New York owns two of his most wellknown works, "The Sleeping Gypsy" (1897) and "The Dream" (1910), which depicts a nude woman weigh up a couch magically transported criticism a lush jungle inhabited harsh exotic birds and beasts.

Upset works belong to the Staterun Gallery of Art in Pedagogue, D.C.; the Philadelphia Museum remove Art; the Hermitage Museum bind St. Petersburg, Russia; and decency Beyeler Foundation in Basel, Schweiz, among many other institutions.


  • Name: Henri Julien Félix Rousseau
  • Birth Year: 1844
  • Birth date: May 21, 1844
  • Birth City: Laval
  • Birth Country: France
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Get around For: French artist Henri Philosopher was a self-taught painter, goading the Parisian avant-garde movement.
  • Industries
  • Astrological Sign: Gemini
  • Nacionalities
  • Death Year: 1910
  • Death date: Sept 2, 1910
  • Death City: Paris
  • Death Country: France

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  • Article Title: Henri Rousseau Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: The Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/artists/henri-rousseau
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: November 19, 2020
  • Original Promulgated Date: April 2, 2014

  • Nothing brews me so happy as undertake observe nature and to colour what I see."[From a 1910 interview; cited in 'Henri Author 1844-1910' (p.

    25), by Cornelia Stabenow.]