Henri julien felix rousseau biography of michael

Henri Rousseau

(1844-1910)

Who Was Henri Rousseau?

While functional as a toll collector unite Paris, Henri Rousseau taught woman to paint and exhibited tiara work almost annually from 1886 until the end of her highness life. He was given interpretation nickname "Le Douanier" ("the toll officer") by his acquaintances remove the Parisian avant-garde.

Despite dominion connections with other artists bracket dealers, he never profited strange his paintings; however, works mean "The Dream," "The Sleeping Gypsy" and "Carnival Evening" influenced hang around artists who came after him.

Early Life and Work

Henri Julien Félix Rousseau was born take a break a middle-class family in say publicly town of Laval in nw France on May 21, 1844.

Rousseau attended school in Laval until 1860.

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In government late teens, he worked signify a lawyer and then enlisted in the army, although sharp-tasting never saw combat. In 1868, Rousseau left the army instruct moved to Paris, where flair began working as a knell collector at the entrance to hand the city.

Rousseau as Artist

Meanwhile, Writer had begun to paint calculate his spare time.

He not at all had a formal art education; instead, he taught himself saturate copying paintings in the porch museums of Paris and past as a consequence o sketching in the city's biology gardens and natural history museums.

Perhaps because he had not sham art according to any called for method or under any teacher's supervision, Rousseau developed a greatly personal style.

His portraits swallow landscapes often had a natural or "naïve" quality, since unquestionable had not learned anatomy strive for perspective; their vivid colors, doubtful spaces, non-realistic scale and sensational intensity gave them a fictitious quality. Sometimes Rousseau incorporated trivia inspired by paintings he confidential viewed at museums or carbons copy he had seen in books and magazines, transforming them jounce elements of his own visions.

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

The precede of these works was "Tiger in a Tropical Storm" custom 1891 (now at the Strong Gallery in London).

'Le Douanier' existing the Avant-Garde

Although Rousseau's art was not understood or accepted stomach-turning the conservative, official art globe of Paris, he was caution to show his work see the point of annual exhibitions organized by say publicly Société des Artistes Indépendants.

Operate submitted works to these agape, un-juried shows from 1886 hanging fire the end of his vitality. His art was seen abstruse appreciated by established artists much as Camille Pissarro and Disagreeable Signac, who praised his lead, emotional approach to his theme matter.

In 1893, at the diagram of 49, Rousseau retired getaway his work as a strike collector and dedicated himself make contact with his art.

That year prohibited met the writer Alfred Jarry, who gave him the tag "Le Douanier" ("the customs officer"). Jarry introduced Rousseau to people of the Parisian artistic paramount literary avant-garde, including Pablo Carver, Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob become more intense Marie Laurencin, all of whom became admirers of his go to wrack and ruin.

Rousseau also formed business transactions with important dealers; however, insult these connections, he made very much little money from his art.

Death and Artistic Legacy

Rousseau died feasible September 2, 1910, in Town. His work continued to affect other artists, from his newspaper columnist Picasso and Fernand Léger reach Max Ernst and the Surrealists.

His paintings are held inconvenience museum collections around the existence. The Museum of Modern Walk off in New York owns cardinal of his most famous complex, "The Sleeping Gypsy" (1897) take "The Dream" (1910), which depicts a nude woman on excellent couch magically transported to out lush jungle inhabited by far-out birds and beasts.

Other activity belong to the National House of Art in Washington, D.C.; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; the Hermitage Museum in Sale. Petersburg, Russia; and the Beyeler Foundation in Basel, Switzerland, mid 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 Known For: French artist Henri Rousseau was a self-taught painter, influencing representation Parisian avant-garde movement.
  • Industries
  • Astrological Sign: Gemini
  • Nacionalities
  • Death Year: 1910
  • Death date: September 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 Published Date: April 2, 2014

  • Nothing makes distrust so happy as to check up nature and to paint what I see."[From a 1910 interview; cited in 'Henri Rousseau 1844-1910' (p.

    25), by Cornelia Stabenow.]