Henri Rousseau: The self-taught godfather of modern art

Henri Rousseau was self-taught and made people laugh with his clumsy creations and ill-conceived perspectives . But, if he had taken lessons, modern art as we know it might never have existed.

Imagine an abundant jungle, tangled with sumptuous foliage. In front of you, like a theater actor, a hungry lion bites an antelope. Meanwhile, in the undergrowth, a menagerie bears witness to the horror that is happening: a panther, two birds of prey with pieces of flesh hanging from their beaks, and to the left, a shape that resembles a monkey, emerging halfway out of the forest, with jagged skin and a glowing eye. In the background, a red sun rises over this threatening scene...

This large canvas, more than three meters wide, is: "The Lion, Being Hungry" by Henri Rousseau, one of the most intriguing characters in modern art.

At the end of his life, at the turn of the 20th century, Rousseau was praised by the Avant-garde artists . "Here is the truth and the future! Here is the painting! Gauguin is said to have exclaimed in front of his self-portrait, while Picasso bought several works by Rousseau, which he later donated to the Louvre.

In 1905, "The Lion, Hungry" was presented to the public at the Salon d'Automne, an annual alternative to the Paris Salon, alongside colorful new works by a group of artists that included Matisse and Derain . One critic was so shocked by the intensity of these paintings that he called these new artists the "Fauves" — inspired, probably, by Rousseau's painting.

But, surprisingly, since he is considered the godfather of modern art (or, as one critic puts it, "The alpha and omega of painting"), Rousseau was totally self-taught.

The sublime and the ridiculous in the work of Douanier Rousseau

Born in 1884 in the small village of Laval, Rousseau led a completely common life. For more than 20 years, he worked in the Paris customs service, which earned him the nickname "The Customs Officer". The reason why he took up painting at the age of 40 remains unclear – perhaps to compensate for the monotony of his work.

In 1886, he presented four paintings at the Salon des Indépendants, the main exhibition of the Post-Impressionists. Although they were widely derided, like most of his later works, Rousseau continued to present his work at the salons in a religious manner, every year, except in 1899 and 1900.

Rousseau copied all his negative reviews in a notebook.

Obviously, compared to the smooth and elegant style of 19th-century academic painting, Rousseau's canvases appear crude. His characters and compositions were incomprehensible and clumsy, he had no idea how to make a perspective, his use of color, especially black, was very peculiar, and he was unable to paint feet. Look, for example, at the contorted limbs of his "Football Players" from 1908 : as an artist, he seems naïve in the extreme.

In the end, however, his works brought him lasting fame, particularly his fantastic scenes of lush jungles, which, with the exception of "Tiger in a Tropical Storm" (1891), were all painted in the last six years before his death in 1910 at the age of 66.

How did an amateur with webbed fingers become a celebrity of modern art?

And, does the fact that he was self-taught have anything to do with his transformation from a Sunday painter to a recognized artist?

If Rousseau had received a classical training, he probably would never have painted his famous jungle scenes, because he would have been told how to do and what not to do: there are rules. And Rousseau couldn't give a damn about the rules. He created his own. Thus, the result was a style that had an important influence on Matisse and Picasso.

In a sense, being self-taught allows one to free oneself from the academic rules imposed, which is true for most great modern works of art.

One of the radical aspects of Douanier Rousseau is that he refused to hide his sources. Rousseau never traveled and his strange jungle scenes were thus concocted in his imagination. He drew his inspiration from the Jardin des Plantes, the botanical garden in Paris, which he often visited to study his paintings: "When I set foot in the greenhouse and see the plants of these exotic countries," he said, "it seems to me that I am like in a dream." He also relied heavily on the illustrations of an album of 200 images of wild animals that he bought at Galeries Lafayette.

The strangest thing is that he wasn't even trying to hide his sources: Rousseau's jungles don't look like real jungles. Those that do not prevent them from exuding a keen sense of mystery and an allure like no other. Many of them even have the impact that we find on the big cinema screens – an effect further increased in the case of "The Hungry Lion" which, thanks to its full title, looks like a movie script:

The lion, being hungry, throws himself on the antelope and devours it. The panther anxiously awaits the moment when it too will be able to have its share. Carnivorous birds have each torn a piece of flesh from the poor animal shedding a tear! Sunset.

Rousseau was not interested in creating illusions, he did not seek to hide something. He didn't need to go to the jungle to paint the real jungle: His purpose was art, not illusion, and that was radical .

However the interest aroused by Rousseau among the Modernists, such as Picasso, lies in the primitive and uneducated nature of his style . "Picasso wanted to paint like a child, and he thought that because of his training at the Academy of Arts in Spain, he could never," said French curator Estelle Fresneau during the Rousseau retrospective in 2005 at the Tate Modern Museum .

"He was impressed by Rousseau because Rousseau's style was pure. Rousseau never tried to do what people wanted him to do. In reality, I think Rousseau was very intelligent. He was aware that he was inventing a new way of painting. »

Maybe the father of Naïve Art wasn't that naïve, after all.