Henri julien felix rousseau biography of rory

Biography of Henri Rousseau

Henri Julien Félix Rousseau, a French self-taught artist, was born on May 21, 1844, in Laval, France. He was a renowned representative of naive art (primitivism) and post-impressionism. Despite lacking formal education, Rousseau's works were highly regarded as solid works of art. He believed that his only teacher was nature.

Early in his life, Rousseau worked as a customs officer. However, in his mature years, he made a switch to painting. He studied at Laval High School and later became a boarder due to his father's debts. When his parents left the city, their house was confiscated. Rousseau struggled in some subjects at school, but he excelled in drawing and music lessons, even receiving awards for his achievements.

Rousseau briefly studied law and worked as a lawyer, but a failed attempt at providing false testimony forced him to seek refuge in the army, where he served for four years starting in 1863. After his father's death, Rousseau moved to Paris in 1868 to support his widowed mother. He married Clémence Boitard, his landlord's 15-year-old daughter. Clémence gave birth to six children, of whom only one survived.

In 1871, Rousseau was appointed as a tax collector for goods imported into Paris. His wife passed away in 1888, and a year later, he married Joséphine Noury. Rousseau developed a serious interest in painting when he was over forty. At the age of 49, in 1893, he quit his job at the customs to dedicate himself entirely to his passion. Although he occasionally struggled financially with a small pension, he took on various odd jobs, including playing the violin on the street.

While Rousseau considered nature as his main teacher, he acknowledged that he received "some advice" from two established academic artists, Jean-Léon Gérôme and Félix Auguste Clément. Rousseau's most famous paintings depict scenes from the jungle, even though the artist never left France and never ventured through jungle thickets. The story of him being a member of an expeditionary force sent to Mexico during his army years has not been proven.

Rousseau drew inspiration from illustrated books and found new subjects for his paintings by visiting the botanical garden in Paris and studying taxidermied wild animals. Additionally, he met a soldier in the army who told him about the sub-tropical Mexico. Alongside exotic scenes, Rousseau also presented some topographical depictions of Paris and its suburbs. He claimed to have invented a new genre of portraiture. Initially, his flat portraits, seemingly executed in a childlike or underdeveloped style, became the subject of ridicule by many critics. People were often shocked or mocked his works. The degree of naivety in his art reached extreme forms, but in reality, his works clearly show the complexity of a particular technique he chose for himself.

From 1886, Rousseau regularly exhibited at the "Salon des Indépendants," although his works did not take center stage initially. Over time, this changed. In 1891, his painting "Tiger in a Tropical Storm" (known as "Surprised!") was exhibited, and Rousseau received his first serious review from the young artist Félix Vallotton, who called the painting the "alpha and omega of painting." Pablo Picasso also admired Rousseau's works. The Spanish genius even held a half-serious, half-joking banquet in honor of the post-impressionist artist in his studio in Le Bateau-Lavoir in 1908. Rousseau's last painting, "The Dream," was exhibited at the "Salon des Indépendants" a few months before his death. He passed away on September 2, 1910, due to gangrene.