Henri Rousseau

Henri Rousseau was a famous French Post-impressionist artists, known for a unique style which challenged academic thinking during the 19th century

Rousseau is best known for his jungle and animal scenes which have drawn huge interest from the international art mainstream who found a great charm within his work.

His work is sometimes classified as Primitivism though in truth his style is very much his own, and the subjects which he chose to depict are similarly imaginative.

Paintings such as Snake Chamer and Dream placed Henri Rousseau as an important and highly memorable painter which this website is devoted to.

French art has long since dominated within Europe since around the middle of the 19th century when it came upon a long spate of imaginative artists who helped push on ideas from previously traditional styles that were starting to appear stale to those who were more contemporary-minded.

The Renaissance had been heavily led by artists from Italy and then France took the lead in a similar way around the 19th century thanks to painters like Henri Rousseau plus the impressionists.

Henri Rousseau was not taken seriously by academics during his own life and it is only the popularity of his work within the public that has ensured his reputation remains strong in the modern day.

Rousseau was sadly derided as an artist perhaps due to his highly contemporary approach as well as the fact that he hadn't had any traditional training, as such, though this is probably now seen as an advantage towards him being so innovative and unique.

As you will see from the Henri Rousseau gallery included throughout this website, his style remained consistent throughout all of his most notable paintings.

Famous paintings from Henri Rousseau included the likes of The Sleeping Gypsy, The Merry Jesters, The Snake Charmer and The Dream although there are many more than this which are worth checking out and they are all included throughout this website.

Fernand Leger, Max Beckmann and Jean Hugo are all known to have been influenced by Rousseau and are likely to have picked up on his charming choice of subject as well as a contemporary use of colour and detail.

Snake Charmer

Henri Rousseau had a colourful style which was termed Primitivism because of it's similarity to cartoon, with a technique of depicting animals and people which some academics labelled as naive and childlike.

Fortunately there have been enough who enjoyed his work that his name and reputation has grown steadily in recent years to a point where his original paintings are highly sought after, with many taking prominent positions within significant national galleries and museums across Europe and North America.

Dream

The popularity within the art public of Henri Rousseau has ensured that his original paintings are frequently bought as fine art print reproductions right across the world, with posters and stretched canvas copies also being purchased.

The style of his work and the clear lines of his portraits, as well as the colourful makeup of his scenes, ensures that they are ideal for printed reproductions with framed giclees typically offering the most accurate form of reproductions of all.

Surprise

With so many people looking to buy Henri Rousseau reproductions online we decided it would make sense to include links within this website to where you can do exactly that, and we have carefully chosen the Art.com Rousseau prints gallery as our recommended resource as we have regularly used them ourlselves so are very confident in suggesting them as the best place to start.

We have a framed reproductions of Dream on our wall, and expect to purchase more from them in the future.

Waterfall

Throughout his career Henri Rousseau features heavy use of his favoured animals which take up the jungle scenes in which he would only occasionally add people in as well.

Where models are used, they would inevitably be the focal point of that particular painting where as when a mixture of animals were combined the key focal point was often less obvious.

Monkeys were amongst the most common animal used and colour would always be a major factor when the artists was deciding who to include.

Brightness was essential when adding subjects on top of his normally dark green jungle backgrounds.

Sleeping Gypsy

Post-impressionism is a large umbrella of contemporary ideas which Henri Rousseau broadly fits into and Primitivism came a long as just a more specific label with which to classify his work.

Many post-impressionists struggled within their lifetime to attract academic acceptance and so Henri Rousseau was not unusual in this regard.

It is always pleasing to see any painter finally recognised once their contemporary and original approaches are finally understood.

Monkeys

Those who enjoy the style used by Henri Rousseau should also check out the breadth of contemporary art movements which may also be of interest, such as Pop artists whose approach also gives a relatively cartoon-like finish.

Within this are the likes of Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and David Hockney who all have impressive careers which are worth checking out.

Post-impressionism also contained vincent van Gogh who needs no introduction and certainly brought about his own impressive legacy.

Jungle

Whilst Henri Rousseau is best known for his jungle paintings, there are also significant amounts of other subjects, such as his own depiction of the Eiffel Tower and some beautiful flamingos.

All artists become labelled for a certain style which is normally just a small selection of their overall career output and Henri Rousseau was no different to this.

Despite his change in subject, though, his overall style was always consistent with a cartoon-like approach and use of bold colours that attracted so many fans within the 20th century and continues to do so today.