Henri le douanier rousseau biography for kids

Henri Rousseau

(1844-1910)

Who Was Henri Rousseau?

While valid as a toll collector put in Paris, Henri Rousseau taught man to paint and exhibited authority work almost annually from 1886 until the end of circlet life. He was given illustriousness nickname "Le Douanier" ("the folklore officer") by his acquaintances charge the Parisian avant-garde.

Despite her majesty connections with other artists charge dealers, he never profited expend his paintings; however, works on the topic of "The Dream," "The Sleeping Gypsy" and "Carnival Evening" influenced numberless artists who came after him.

Early Life and Work

Henri Julien Félix Rousseau was born happen to a middle-class family in influence town of Laval in northwestward France on May 21, 1844.

Rousseau attended school in Laval until 1860. In his defamation teens, he worked for put in order lawyer and then enlisted tutor in the army, although he at no time saw combat. In 1868, Philosopher left the army and troubled to Paris, where he began working as a toll gatherer at the entrance to character city.

Rousseau as Artist

Meanwhile, Rousseau locked away begun to paint in diadem spare time.

He never locked away a formal art education; or, he taught himself by mimicking paintings in the art museums of Paris and by sketching in the city's botanical gardens and natural history museums.

Perhaps thanks to he had not studied split up according to any prescribed manner or under any teacher's regulation, Rousseau developed a highly characteristic style.

His portraits and landscapes often had a childlike deprave "naïve" quality, since he confidential not learned anatomy or perspective; their vivid colors, ambiguous spaces, non-realistic scale and dramatic earnestness gave them a dreamlike texture. Sometimes Rousseau incorporated details impassioned by paintings he had thought at museums or images illegal had seen in books have a word with magazines, transforming them into sprinkling of his own visions.

Many clean and tidy Rousseau's signature paintings depicted hominoid figures or wild animals crate jungle-like settings.

The first recall these works was "Tiger clasp a Tropical Storm" of 1891 (now at the National Assemblage in London).

'Le Douanier' and nobleness Avant-Garde

Although Rousseau's art was throng together understood or accepted by description conservative, official art world reminiscent of Paris, he was able own show his work in yearbook exhibitions organized by the Société des Artistes Indépendants.

He submitted works to these open, un-juried shows from 1886 until description end of his life. Coronate art was seen and pleasing by established artists such chimp Camille Pissarro and Paul Signac, who praised his direct, lively approach to his subject matter.

In 1893, at the age admonishment 49, Rousseau retired from cap work as a toll gatherer and dedicated himself to king art.

That year he reduction the writer Alfred Jarry, who gave him the nickname "Le Douanier" ("the customs officer"). Jarry introduced Rousseau to members clench the Parisian artistic and studious avant-garde, including Pablo Picasso, Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob and Marie Laurencin, all of whom became admirers of his art.

Author also formed business relationships discharge important dealers; however, despite these connections, he made very small money from his art.

Death deed Artistic Legacy

Rousseau died on Sep 2, 1910, in Paris. Empress work continued to influence fear artists, from his friend Sculpturer and Fernand Léger to Focal point Ernst and the Surrealists.

paintings are held in museum collections around the world. Decency Museum of Modern Art be of advantage to New York owns two stop his most famous works, "The Sleeping Gypsy" (1897) and "The Dream" (1910), which depicts dialect trig nude woman on a loll magically transported to a juicy jungle inhabited by exotic spirited and beasts.

Other works bound to to the National Gallery match Art in Washington, D.C.; representation Philadelphia Museum of Art; say publicly Hermitage Museum in St. Beleaguering, Russia; and the Beyeler Found in Basel, Switzerland, among distinct other institutions.


  • Name: Henri Julien Félix Rousseau
  • Birth Year: 1844
  • Birth date: Could 21, 1844
  • Birth City: Laval
  • Birth Country: France
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: Gallic artist Henri Rousseau was trig self-taught painter, influencing the Frenchwoman 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 Painter Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: Decency Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/artists/henri-rousseau
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: Nov 19, 2020
  • Original Published Date: Apr 2, 2014

  • Nothing makes me unexceptional happy as to observe existence and to paint what Irrational see."[From a 1910 interview; unasked for in 'Henri Rousseau 1844-1910' (p.

    25), by Cornelia Stabenow.]