Rousseau, Henri, << roo SOH, on REE >> (1844-1910), was a French artist who painted some of the most unusual pictures in early modern art. He is called a primitive painter because he had no professional training.
The bold colors and decorative patterns of Rousseau’s paintings indicate his debt to works by artists called impressionists and nabis. But unlike such artists, Rousseau portrayed each detail precisely and polished the surfaces of his canvases to a high gloss. He took many of his subjects–such as a wedding party or a patriotic celebration–from French middle-class life. But he also painted realistic figures and objects in fantastic or mysterious relationships and exotic environments. Such pictures strongly influenced the surrealism movement of the 1920’s (see Surrealism ).
Rousseau was born in Laval. He worked as a minor customs official in Paris until about 1885, when he retired to devote his life to painting.
