Henri Rousseau Retrospective at National Gallery of Art

Saturday, 19 August 2006 10:44

WASHINGTON, DC – The late-blooming career of Henri Rousseau (1844-1910), a self-taught French artist and savvy connoisseur of popular culture in the late 19th century, will be showcased in the first major American retrospective of the artist’s work in 20 years.  Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris, on view at the National Gallery of Art, East Building, through October 15, 2006—the only U.S. venue—celebrates the broad range of his work: landscapes of Paris and environs, allegories, portraits, as well as the largest grouping ever assembled of his iconic jungle paintings.  An extensive display of more than 100 documents, popular ephemera, and other source material will shed light on Rousseau’s artistic ambitions, working method, and the world he inhabited.

“Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris presents a rare opportunity to explore the work of this intriguing artist and to understand how it set the stage for some of the groundbreaking innovations of modernism,” said Earl A. Powell III, director, National Gallery of Art.  “We are proud to present this dynamic exhibition with loans from public and private collections worldwide to the American public.” 

The exhibition was organized by Tate Modern, London, and Réunion des musées nationaux and Musée d’Orsay, Paris, in association with the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Born in the market town of Laval, France, Henri Rousseau moved to Paris in 1868 and remained there for the rest of his life.  He served as a customs clerk on the outskirts of the city, a post which earned him the nickname “Le Douanier” (the customs agent).  A self-taught artist, Rousseau was unable to paint full time until his early retirement in 1893.  Despite these unfavorable circumstances, Rousseau had grand ambitions, hoping to join the refined artists of the conservative French Academy.  As an outsider, Rousseau was unfamiliar with the rules of the artistic establishment.  Although he worked in traditional genres, producing landscapes, portraits, allegories, and exotic scenes, they were transformed in his hands, made odd in a way that provoked ridicule by traditionalists.  Often Rousseau turned to the popular culture of his time and class—illustrated magazines, dime-store adventure novels, postcards, and photographs—integrating its dramatic subjects and bold graphic style into his paintings.

Rousseau was best known for his bold pictures of the jungle, overflowing with flora and fauna.  But this painter of exotic locales never left France; his exotic paintings were the concoctions of a city dweller, shaped by visits to the botanical gardens, the zoo, colonial expositions, and images of distant lands seen in books and magazines.  Towards the end of his life, Rousseau was championed by a younger generation of avant-garde painters, writers, and their associates, including Pablo Picasso and the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who saw in his work new possibilities for the future in his work.  In 1911, the year after his death, the Salon des Indépendants celebrated his achievements with an exhibition of more than 40 paintings.

The Exotic in 19th-Century Popular Culture: Against the backdrop of colonial expansion, France witnessed a growing fascination with the exotic.  Rousseau’s jungle paintings draw upon the French popular understanding of these far-off places and cultures.  Rousseau was a frequent visitor to the Museum of Natural History and the Jardin des Plantes (the surrounding zoo and botanical gardens) as well as numerous colonial expositions held in Paris in the last decades of the 19th century.  He was also an eager scavenger of images from a variety of printed sources, which he adapted and transformed in his paintings.

Visitors to the exhibition will see a broad selection of documentary material showing how the exotic was represented in 19th-century French popular culture.  Materials include tabloid-style illustrated magazines; photographs and souvenirs from the Paris zoo and botanical gardens; monumental bronze sculptures of struggling man and beast by the artist-in-residence at the Paris Museum of Natural History, Emmanuel Frémiet; ephemera from colonial expositions and World's Fairs; and popular adventure tales by Jules Verne and Rudyard Kipling.

Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris is organized by Christopher Green, professor of art history, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and Frances Morris, curator and head of displays, Tate Modern, London, with Claire Frèches-Thory, conservateur général, Musée d’Orsay, Paris.  The display of documents, popular ephemera, and source material was organized by Vincent Gille, chargé de mission, Pavillon des Arts, Paris, and Nancy Ireson, assistant curator, National Gallery, London.  The exhibition was coordinated for the Washington venue by Leah Dickerman, associate curator, modern and contemporary art, National Gallery of Art, Washington.

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