Henri Rousseau: A self-taught revolutionizes the art world
Henri Rousseau, also known as "le Douanier" (the customs officer), was a French painter who made a name for himself in the art world despite a lack of formal training. Born on May 21, 1844 in Laval, France, and died on September 2, 1910 in Paris, Rousseau is celebrated as one of the most original painters of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries and as a representative of primitivism in art.
Rousseau enlisted in the army at the age of twenty to avoid a court conviction. After leaving the army in 1868, he began working as a bailiff. He began to paint in the mid-1870s, mainly in his free time as a clerk in the Paris tax authorities. Despite his humble beginnings and the ridicule he received for his works, Rousseau was not discouraged and worked hard at his art.
Rousseau was a self-taught artist with an extraordinary imagination. He created a unique style and mastered the use of color. Although he made numerous mistakes in his painting, he managed to create his own primitive but coherent painting language. He was particularly interested in the exotic and fantastic visions.
Rousseau created about 25 paintings with exotic landscapes as the main subject. Although he never traveled outside of France, he allowed rumors of his distant and exotic travels to be heard and used them as inspiration for his art. He often visited the Paris Zoo and the Natural History Museum, where he observed different species of plants and animals and let his imagination run wild.
Rousseau did not gain recognition in the art world until 1905, when the newly formed Autumn Salon accepted two of his paintings. Despite this recognition, he lived in poverty and often earned extra money as a musician. However, the artistic community accepted Rousseau as a peculiar freak who was the attraction of social gatherings. Young artists who gathered around Picasso and Braque especially liked this “old man with a mustache and a violin under his arm”.
Rousseau died of gangrene in a leg wound in 1910. Shortly before his death he managed to create his last and greatest work: "The Dream". This painting can be seen as a summary of a series of 25 images depicting the jungle. The series depicts the beautiful world of the tropics, filled with exotic plants, animals, and sometimes people.
Pablo Picasso called Rousseau one of the most important and revolutionary painters of the 20th century, who “worked hard all his life to learn to paint like a child”. Rousseau's influence on the art world is undeniable, and his works are a shining example of the power of imagination and the beauty of simplicity.
