WOMAN WALKING IN AN
EXOTIC FOREST
by Henri Rousseau
1844-1910
 


 

 

Woman Walking in an Exotic Forest by Henri Rousseau

Henri Rousseau (ahn REE roo SOH) was born in northwest France in the city of Laval. He liked to draw, and he enjoyed music. He played the clarinet. Once he wrote a waltz and named it for his wife, but don't confuse him with Jean Jacques Rousseau, the composer.

He served for a time in the French army, and when he was discharged he worked as a toll collector for the city of Paris. His friends called him Le Douanier (luh dwan YAY) which means custom official, but actually he just collected toll money. When he was 49 years old he retired from this job and devoted the rest of his life to painting.

Henri Rosseau self-portrait 1890


 

  

He was a primitive artist; self taught. He would go to the Louvre and copy the paintings. Even when he started making his own paintings he sometimes copied from other artists such as Delacroix's tiger when he painted Scout Attacked by a Tiger .

He enjoyed going to the botanical garden in Paris and looking at the plants and the zoo animals. Then he would make a painting with plants in it, but instead of making the plants their actual size, he would make them as big as trees. This made the picture look like a fantasy world. Many people just laughed at his paintings because they looked so unreal. However, some well known artists such as Picasso saw the value in his work. Picasso even gave a banquet in his honor.

Rousseau was married twice. With his first wife Clemence, he had nine children, but she died and so did seven of their children. His second wife also died after they had been married for four years.

Another famous painting done by Rousseau is The Sleeping Gypsy.

As a rather lonely man, he died at the age of 66 from a leg infection. Only seven people attended his funeral. About a year after his death his paintings began to sell, but he didn't live to see the recognition he craved.