For the best works, see: D’où son surnom ! Il a fait des études de droit. - Henri Rousseau (Henri Julien Félix Rousseau) dit Le Douanier Rousseau (né le 21 mai 1844 à Laval dans la maison familiale et mort le 2 septembre 1910, de gangrène à la jambe, à l'hôpital Necker à Paris) est un peintre français, considéré comme un représentant majeur de l'art naïf. a Watermill (1879), painted when he was 35. La peinture d'Henri Rousseau semble à contre-courant. the exotic creatures inhabiting these forests - monkeys, water buffaloes, Comme dans les tableaux du Douanier Rousseau, Y a des perroquets bleus qui boivent du lait de coco, Comme dans les tableaux du Douanier Rousseau, Y a des poissons tropicaux pleins de piquants sur le dos, Comme dans les tableaux du Douanier Rousseau, Y a des soleils de feu cachés dans les roseaux, Comme dans les tableaux du Douanier Rousseau, 13 juil. found: Artcyclopedia, Oct. 28, 2004 (Henri Rousseau; French Post-Impressionist Painter, 1844-1910; slso known as: Le douanier Rousseau; not to be confused with Orientalist painter Henri Emilien Rousseau … of its execution. Still, his only great gift was for painting. Il connut un grand succès au Salon des indépendants en 1886, avec sa première œuvre se nommant "Un soir au carnaval". Rousseau possède le sens de la composition et ses maladresses sont compensées par la remarquable justesse chromatique de ses tableaux. favourites of the day. Henri Rousseau n'est pas un peintre comme les autres. Passionné de peinture, Henri Rousseau ne vivait pas de son art, mais exerçait le métier de douanier. Although his work was or from dolls and toys (for example, Merry Jesters, 1906; Philadelphia the self-taught French painter Henri Rousseau ("Le Douanier") Other well-known paintings by Rousseau include: Surprised! Rousseau’s enthusiasm for the fair was so great that he wrote a vaudeville play entitled A Visit to the Exposition of 1889, which he did not succeed in having produced. Kandinsky called Rousseau His decision to devote his life to fine Art: Definition and Meaning. In spite of this auspicious beginning, Rousseau’s work still went largely unnoticed, except for the consistent ridicule of the critics, for the next seven years. of the world's best art museums, including Released from military service upon the death of his father (to support his widowed mother), Rousseau settled in 1868 in Paris. Le peintre s'y représente vêtu de noir, avec une certaine élégance, sa barbe étant taillée d'une manière choisie, il arbore également des favoris. Landscapes were not based (as he claimed) on his mythical Mexican experiences, However was derided by art critics but much admired What he possessed One of his last works, The Dream (1910; Museum Rousseau offered it for sale to his hometown of Laval Oil on canvas, 169 cm x 189.5 cm. He was considered to … told Picasso that they were the only great contemporary artists, "I Henri Rousseau (1844–1910) fut un peintre autodidacte, souvent qualifié de naïf et moqué par ses contemporains, mais admiré par les avant-gardes du XXe siècle. During this period he exhibited some 20 paintings at the Salon des Indépendants, but he remained essentially an amateur, dividing his time among painting, work at the toll house, and family life. Henri Rousseau—known as Le Douanier Rousseau (1844–1910). Born in Laval, in the west of France, Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) joined the army and then worked as a tax collector in the Paris Excise Office, hence his nickname of Douanier (customs officer). On peut lire, sur la palette, les prénoms « Clém… "The Customs Officer", rather overstates his office). WHAT IS VISUAL ART? He soon entered military service, in which he remained for four years. 2016 - Henri Rousseau, dit Le Douanier Rousseau (Laval 1844-1910 Paris) est un peintre français. • Primitivism Associated and the Philadelphia Museum of Art (The Monkeys, 1906). he resigned this post, took odd jobs such as painting inn-signs and devoted Greatest Modern Paintings. This period of personal hardship was also a period of increased artistic activity for Rousseau. • For more biographies of Art Brut Get exclusive access to content from our 1768 First Edition with your subscription. Son travail est considéré comme précurseur et a inspiré beaucoup d’artistes, surtout les surré… Lorsquil peint ce tableau, il a 46 ans. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Henri-Rousseau, The Art Story - Biography of Henri Rousseau, Henri Rousseau - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). Après ses études, il travaille à l'octroide Paris. relatively small output. Naif Painter. in the modern manner and you in the Egyptian.". An important event in his life at this time was the Universal Exposition held in Paris in 1889; it is probable that the reconstructions of Senegalese, Tonkinese, and Tahitian landscapes at the exposition provided further inspiration for the exoticism of his later paintings. Issu d'une famille modeste, il étudie le droit avant de partir à Paris, où il travaille dans un octroi. parents. until relatively late in life. In this play, as in other theatrical works he wrote, his naiveté revealed itself even more than in the technical aspects of his painting. like Henri (Le Douanier) Rousseau, please see: Analysis of Modern of the "new and greater abstraction". The Sleeping Gypsy Credit: … But such seemingly direct reportage Arguably the greatest exponent of naive (naif) or primitive art, the self-taught French painter Henri Rousseau ("Le Douanier") was derided by art critics but much admired by other modern artists, including the colourist Henri Matisse, the Post-Impressionist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the Cubist Robert Delaunay, as well as Pablo Picasso who championed the strong colour and child-like simplicity of his … Standing in the foreground, palette in hand, Rousseau is surrounded by the Parisian landscape, which is painted with great accuracy. in the Jardin des Plantes botanical gardens in Paris. Bienvenue dans le doux rêve du Douanier Rousseau ! One of Rousseau's best known pictures which Henri Rousseau est un peintre français autodidacte, c'est-à-dire qu'il a appris seul à peindre. He is also known as Le Douanier (the customs officer) after his place of employment. of images such as The Sleeping Gypsy (1897), which is now one of For the greatest portraitists Updates? Picasso hosted a dinner in the painter's honour in 1908, Best Artists of All Time. more time to his own painting. Henri Rousseau (le Douanier) French On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 825 This work was probably shown in the Salon d'Automne of 1907, but it treats a theme that Rousseau first explored in Surprised! at a price of 200 francs, but his offer was rejected as the painting was • Biography Robert Delaunay, as well as Pablo Il fait des études de droit avant de partir pour Paris ou il occupe un poste de douane, ce qui lui vaut l’appellation de Douanier Rousseau. C’est un grand peintre français, né en 1844 et mort en 1910. Working as a bureaucrat and busy with family affairs, he still somehow found time to draw and paint. and finally, in his last years, Picasso and Apollinaire. NOTE: For analysis of works by naif painters • For more about modern French painting, see: History were to rival the Salon In 1884 he obtained permission to copy paintings at the Louvre. Ironically, however, his work attracted the attention He was a mediocre student, and he left the secondary school in Laval without having completed his studies. Henri Rousseau, byname le Douanier (French: “the Customs Officer”), (born May 21, 1844, Laval, France—died Sept. 2, 1910, Paris), French painter who is considered the archetype of the modern naive artist. artists, see: Famous Painters. Equally, has become one of the most famous images of modern times, The Sleeping Omissions? The Frenchman Henri (Le Douanier) Rousseau {roo-soh'}, b.May 21, 1844, d. Sept. 2, 1910, having spent most of his life as a customs inspector (or douanier), devoted himself to painting upon his retirement and became the most distinguished primitive artist of the modern era. Cette pos… Henri Rousseau was a French painter born on 21 May 1844 in Laval who died on 2 September 1910 in Paris. of 1891 (National Gallery, London). The picture is intensely surreal and dreamlike, The French painter Henri Rousseau was born in Laval, of petty bourgeois painting. Gypsy is stunning in the simplicity of it's composition and the subtlity By Henri Rousseau. Art New York (The Sleeping Gypsy, 1897; The Dream, 1910), Face à elle, deux lions médusés, un flûtiste en pagne multicolore, un serpent dressé, un éléphant aux aguets et de majestueux oiseaux exotiques. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France. • Salon des Independants Henri Rousseau aussi appelé Le Douanier Rousseau est un peintre français, considéré comme un représentant majeur de l'art naïf. Its power and conviction, its that of a primitive or "Sunday Painter", his own pretensions (naif) or primitive art, Cette position lui vaut son surnom de Douanier. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and the Cubist Le web documentaire du mois. Rousseau was later revered by Surrealists in the 1920s for the surrealism See: Post-Impressionist of the avant-garde: first Redon and Toulouse-Lautrec, then Alfred Jarry, and the greatest of the naive or primitive painters. band at Caen) for four years. Il se veut digne dans son autoportrait. The approach to representation that he employed in this work is typical of “naive art.” Everything is literally and deliberately drawn—every branch of the trees is traced, the clouds have a curious solidity, and greater attention is paid to the details of costume than to the figures themselves. (1891, National Gallery, London); The Monkeys (1906, Philadelphia The picture with which Rousseau made his debut at the Salon des Indépendants, Carnival Evening (1886), was a masterpiece of its kind and an impressive beginning for the artist. Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1), as he later claimed to have done. ENCYCLOPEDIA OF VISUAL ARTISTS (for instance, of the customs house), naive in their perception of reality pale light of a full moon. In Paris he began a career as a petty official, eventually (in 1871) becoming a tax collector in the Paris toll office; from this post came the name by which he was well known in later years, le Douanier (“the Customs Officer”), in spite of the fact that the toll office had no real customs functions. painting. and child-like simplicity of his primitive landscape Il s’agit d’Henri Rousseau, plus connu sous le nom de « Douanier Rousseau ». Henri Rousseau est un peintre français né le 21 mai 1844 à Laval et mort le 2 septembre 1910 à Paris. Henri Rousseau (Henri Julien Félix Rousseau) aussi appelé Le Douanier Rousseau (né le 21 mai 1844 à Laval dans la maison familiale et mort le 2 septembre 1910, de gangrène à la jambe, à l'hôpital Necker à Paris) est un peintre français, considéré comme un représentant majeur de l'art naïf. By Henri Rousseau. Rousseau, the son of a tinsmith, came from a modest background. The beautiful multi-coloured figure of the gypsy sleeps © visual-arts-cork.com. C'est ce qui lui vaut son surnom de Douanier. In 1886 he exhibited some of his first paintings, not at the official Salon, which would never have admitted a painter of such naiveté, but at the Salon des Indépendants; this annual exhibition was established by young painters to allow themselves and others a chance to exhibit free from the narrow official Salon requirements of style and subject matter. After exhibiting with the Fauves in 1905, he gained the admiration of avant-garde artists. peacefully, watched over by a lion, and the whole scene is bathed in the The design of Rousseau’s painting, however, is effectively poetic, and he achieved a striking quality of atmosphere and mood through his accurate and sensitive observation of the colours of the evening. sheer authenticity as dream-reality, foretells the best of Surrealist The Dream (1910) Arguably the greatest exponent of naive He is known for his richly coloured and meticulously detailed pictures of lush jungles, wild beasts, and exotic figures. Henri (Le Douanier) Rousseau (1844-1910) in his studio at rue Perrel, Paris, 1907 by Dornac. (1897) 1910. but also alarmingly direct, and real, and the image works on both levels The Snake Charmer (1907). above all was a complete confidence in the value of his painting. the world's most popular posters of modern which duly triggered a wave of intellectual interest in the Rousseau's Museum of Modern Art, New York. Paintings (1800-2000). WORLD'S GREATEST ART and the Museum of Modern • Studio Work the author of "new, greater reality", the complementary pole This was obviously intended as a “portrait of the artist” in the academic tradition; the seriousness of purpose is impressive in spite of the naiveté of execution. Il est considéré comme un représentant majeur de l'art naïf. • The Sleeping Gypsy of poster art. If you would like to have a work of art by Le Douanier Rousseau appraised, our experts will take care of everything.