Henri Rousseau

1844 - 1910 • French • Painter • "Naive" /Personal fantasy

"The hungry lion, throwing himself upon the antelope, devours him; the panther stands by awaiting the moment when he, too, can claim his share. Birds of prey have ripped out pieces of -flesh from the poor animal that sheds a tear!" - Henri Rousseau

In the words quoted above, Rousseau described The Hungry Lion (1905), which was on exhibit at the SALON o'AUTOMNE of 1905. Works by MATISSE, DERAIN, BRAQUE, ROUAULT, VLAMINCK, DUFY, and others hung nearby . It was this SALON at which the critic Louis Vauxcelles first used the word "fauves," or "wild beasts," to describe the paintings he saw, and thereby named a new movement (see FAUVE). It is often said that Rousseau's Hungry Lion is what prompted Vauxcelles's comment. Rousseau was mythologized, primarily by the poet/critic APOLLINAIRE, who told this anecdote: "Rousseau had so strong a sense of reality that when he painted a fantastic subject, he sometimes took fright and, trembling all over, had to open the window." Traditionally called douanier, which means customs inspector, Rousseau was never that. Rather, he was a gabelou, an employee of the municipal toll service. Putting aside diverse erroneous stories, he was an untutored, unsophisticated "Sunday painter" who left his job and lived in poverty to devote himself to his avocation. He found the animal and botanical specimens that he painted at the Jardin des Plantes in Paris. Those who saw his work marveled at it and urged him to keep his "naivete." Though he admired the ACADEMIC painters of the Salon, its juries rejected him. He exhibited at the unjuried Salons, which he commemorated in his 1906 painting, Liberty Inviting Artists to Take Part in the Twenty-second Exhibition of the Societe des Artistes Independants. Many of Rousseau's paintings are of lions and other wild animals, and they are usually more peaceable than The Hungry Lion, described above. On the frame of The Sleeping Gypsy (1897) Rousseau inscribed, "The feline, though ferocious, is loath to leap upon its prey, who, overcome by fatigue, lies in a deep sleep." This is his best-known work and, naivete notwithstanding, it is extremely sophisticatedthe lion's tufted tail, juxtaposed with the full moon, somehow distributes and anchors the weight of the figures below. The colors, placement of forms, and the inexplicable mystery of the event portrayed contribute to making this one of the most unforgettable pictures in the Western world.