Henri Rousseau (21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910), was a French painter who was famous for his primitive paintings. He was a totally self-taught artist while having other jobs.

Life

• Henri Rousseau was born on 21 May 1844, in Laval, Mayenne.
• Since 1863, Rousseau joined the army for four years. 
• In 1868, Rousseau moved to Paris to work as a government employee for supporting mother after his father died.
• In 1871, Rousseau became a collector of the octroi of Paris, collecting taxes on goods entering Paris.
• Since 1886, Rousseau started to regularly exhibit his works in the Salon des Indépendants. The exhibited works included the Surprised.

• In 1893, Rousseau moved to a studio in Montparnasse that Rousseau truly started his professional artist carer. Furthermore, he worked and lived there until he died.
• In 1908, Pablo Picasso held a half-serious, half-burlesque banquet in his studio at Le Bateau-Lavoir in Rousseau’s honour so-called the banquet Rousseau. This banquet is not only an affirmation to Rousseau’s achievement but also an influential event for the next artistic development.
• In March 1910, Rousseau exhibited his last painting, The Dream. Six months later, he died from a blood clot on 2 September 1910.

Style

Rousseau’s art has a totally distinct style with other contemporary artists. Because he completely learned paintings by himself, his art also showed some kind of kid-like naive and imaginative. He used both high-level art technique and the naive aesthetics in his painting. The typical rule of traditional academic art cannot limit Rousseau’s creation.

Many of Rousseau’s works created with extremely disproportionation and exaggeration. For example, in the Boy on the Rocks, the boy can be seen as sitting on a series of mountains but not only rocks.

Personal Opinions

Rousseau is my favourite artist and his life is my pursuit. I want to create my art in this kind of freedom too, just as same as he did. The nature of art creation is not a rigid technical study, nor is it a serious discussion about human nature but the pursuit of happiness. Enjoying the process of making something, to create what truly belongs to the artist self, and to human beings.

The Sleeping Gypsy is my favourite painting by Rousseau. He used his imagination and creativity to illustrate an originally should be a terrifying lion to become peaceful and docile. In the first impression, this painting seems to be made of the separated portions, but indeed the overall combination together created this comfortable mood. Every part of this painting has its own value and be closely connected with other ones by Rousseau’s clever conception. For example, the background moon and desert together let audiences know this is a silent environment first. Then the main characters, the lion and Gypsy, are both illustrated in relaxed status. Those together build up an imaginatively peaceful scene.

References

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sleeping_Gypsy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Rousseau http://www.henrirousseau.net/ http://www.henrirousseau.net/boy-on-the-rocks.jsp#prettyPhoto https://www.theartstory.org/artist/rousseau-henri/ https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E4%BA%A8%E5%88%A9%C2%B7%E5%8D%A2%E6%A2%AD