Mocked during his lifetime, Henri Rousseau is a master of naive art passed down to posterity

Henri Julien Félix Rousseau, known as Douanier Rousseau, is a French painter born on May 21, 1844 in Laval in Mayenne and died in Paris on September 2, 1910. He is an important representative of naive art and is considered a precursor of surrealism .

Childhood and youth

Fourth child born; In a fairly poor family, whose father, Julien Rousseau, was a tinsmith, Henri Rousseau was educated. Laval. Little inclined to study, he nevertheless distinguished himself in drawing. After studying a little law, he is hired with a lawyer at your disposal. Nantes. He then enlisted in the army for seven years. Income at Paris, he married in 1869. He was hired in Paris. the Grant of Paris as clerk, and, because his work consists of collect taxes on goods entering Paris, he is nicknamed; « customs officer », notably by the poet Alfred Jarry, hence the nickname « Douanier Rousseau ».
Passionate; of drawing and painting, he began his career ;became a self-taught amateur painter in 1872.

His work

Douanier Rousseau painted nearly 300 works during his life, the majority of which were works of art. have been lost because Henri Rousseau used it to pay his debts. A prolific painter, customs officer Rousseau is also an artist who excelled in primitive representation.

• Naive art

Indeed, Henri Rousseau chose to paint in a very figurative and almost simplistic manner, using bright colors and representing his frozen characters , almost without prospects. Henri Rousseau is a master of naive painting, close to the arts « first ».

• Jungles

Henri Rousseau almost never left his work. Paris and yet many of his paintings represent lush jungles. Customs officer Rousseau drew his exotic inspiration from botanical books, the Parisian garden of plants and the acclimatization garden. Its inextricable jungles make chestnut trees, cacti, sansevieria, lotus or banana trees coexist, without any concern for coherence, plausibility or proportion. The result is dense, abundant paintings, mixing all shades of green and an infinity of colors. of luminous colors.
Surprised!, 1891 is an oil on canvas which is the first jungle executed by Henri Rousseau. Exhibited at the Salon des Independants in 1891, it marked the beginning of a long series of paintings inspired by the same theme, populated with wild animals with glowing eyes, plants with gigantic leaves and unique chromatic harmonies.

"The lion, being hungry, throws himself on the antelope", 1898-1905 is a great oil on canvas which earned him, after years of mockery, the admiration of the artistic avant-garde. Picasso and Braque salute his talent in this field. restore a certain botanical accuracy while giving the his paintings a fantastic mystery.

• Landscapes and portraits

His landscapes, like his portraits, are marked by the absence of perspective and proportions. The characters are represented frozen, almost inexpressive. His clumsiness, due to his lack of academic training in the pictorial arts, are however compensated by a keen sense of composition and colors: in this, Henri Rousseau joins the spontaneity of the artist. creative arts of the primitive arts.

• The literary work of Douanier Rousseau

Henri Rousseau also illustrated himself in the literary field: he was in fact close not only to other painters but also to writers, such as Alfred Jarry or even Guillaume Apollinaire and André Breton, who will see in his work precursor elements of surrealism.
In addition to the poems and explanatory texts of his paintings, Henri Rousseau published several plays.

The independent living room

To exhibit his works and try to gain a little recognition, Henri Rousseau had little other choice than to participate in the Salon des Indé ;pending: no jury in fact limited access. In 1886 he exhibited four works there, which were not at all appreciated. Henri Rousseau will nevertheless participate annually in this show and will end up acquiring a certain recognition there.

Relative reputation

Hié by artists like Jarry, Apollinaire or Picasso, Henri Rousseau acquired recognition and a certain notoriety. He is hired as a drawing and painting teacher by the Philotechnic Association. Besides constituting an undeniable social climb and explicit recognition of his talent as a painter, this new position ensures him a means of subsistence even though he has ceased to be a painter. to work for the Grant in 1893 in order to devote himself to his art.
He subsequently succeeds in sell several of his works to an art dealer. He can then set up a workshop and make a decent living from his art.

Legal proceedings

Henri Rousseau was involved in twice in trouble with the law. The first time in 1863 when he stole 20 francs from a banker. the Nantes lawyer who employed him, which earned him a year in prison and having to enlist in the army to escape prison. the reformatory. A second time in 1907 for a case of fraud which earned him a month in preventive prison in December 1907 then a sentence of imprisonment. two years suspended prison sentence with a fine of 100 francs.

Gangrene and Death

Stricken with gangrene, he died at the hospital. Necker hospital in Paris on September 2, 1910. Poor, he was buried there. in a mass grave Bagneux. A year later his friends raised the money necessary to offer him a thirty-year concession then in 1947, his remains were transferred to the Perrine garden in Paris. Laval.

Posterity

At the beginning of the 20th century, young artists who were amateurs of primitive arts, African or Oceanian, became enthusiastic about the creativity of free and fresh from painters like Paul Gauguin. This current, called primitivist, finds its extension in the naive art of Henri Rousseau. These new forms of art, which move away from Western academicism, are similar to Fauvism and Cubism then in full development. In 1905, Rousseau's painting entitled The lion, being hungry, pounces on the antelope, is exposed to the in the room reserved for the tawny paintings of the autumn salon.
Today, Rousseau is considered one of the most important artists in the world. like an immense painter. His paintings are exhibited in the largest museums in the world.