The masterpiece | Rousseau: the hardcore dreamer

Hello everyone, welcome to the Artron Lecture Hall.

Today, we talk about Rousseau.

In fact, everyone has an artistic dream when they are young, and the excitement of picking up a paintbrush to apply paint is an unforgettable memory. But if this dream had been suppressed, who would have picked up this old dream in their later years?

Henri Rousseau (1844–1910)

French Post-Impressionist painter

After life training, it is estimated that most people will not expect the so-called dream to come true in the last years of life, which is just a trick to deceive children. But there was one man who really did, and he was Henri Rousseau, the well-known master of post-impressionist art.

The so-called character determines fate, this is true.

Born in 1844 in northwestern France, Rousseau loved to draw from an early age, but his family was ordinary, and his father was an ordinary plumber, he did not understand what "art" was, so he did not look at his son's hobby very much. Moreover, once he found out that little Rousseau was secretly painting, he would scold him very severely.

Rousseau was born in Mune, not good at words, not smart, average grades, average performance, although the art and music two subjects are very good, but also won some awards, but simply can not enter the eyes of their parents.

Ordinary family circumstances, ordinary parents, plus ordinary little Rousseau, seem to be destined to be an ordinary life story.

Henri Rousseau (1844–1910)

French Post-Impressionist painter

He did go to school step by step. After graduation, he found an apprenticeship in a law firm, but because he got into a lawsuit, he had to join the army to avoid the limelight. However, this period of military service left a good impression on him, and many strange observations and war experiences took root in his heart. After retiring from the army, Rousseau took his mother to Paris to earn a living, fell in love with the daughter of the landlord and married and had children. Later, he got a job: checking fabrics, food, etc. sent to all parts of Paris every day.

The lowest job was extremely boring, but Rousseau didn't care at all, because he had his own little pleasure- painting, which could happily pass the boring time. However, the leader is not very fond of it. Once, when his paintings were discovered by the leaders while he was working, he was immediately scolded with a split face and ridiculed for having no talent for painting.

But at this time, character once again plays an important role: Rousseau is not affected by these ridicules and blows at all, concentrates on painting, and never gives up.

Rousseau, who had never received professional training in his life, firmly retained all his talent and enthusiasm for painting. Those turbulent years and fragments of memories that are not particularly beautiful make up the vivid and delicate fantasy worlds of his pen. They are dreamlike and naïve, inseparable from the people of every age. They are close, but they are always separated from the public by some unknown time and space.

Rousseau's "Carnival Night"

In 1886

117.3×89.5cm

Philadelphia Museum of Art

For example, Rousseau's first public appearance of the work "Carnival Night". By this time, his unique color imagination and, albeit naïve but astonishing, formal techniques had emerged. In the work, a couple dressed in carnival costumes stroll on a late-night country road. The moon hangs high and the mountains in the distance are as bright as day, but the trees and thatched huts in the near distance are buried deep in darkness, giving the bright figures in the foreground a strange visual effect. Such a unrealistic treatment shows the lack of Rousseau's basic training, but also shows the existence of a unique sense of mystery.

Rousseau's Self-Portrait on the Isle of Saint-Louis

In 1890

143×110cm

National Gallery of Prague

The Self-Portrait on the Isle of St. Louis is huge and very eye-catching. In the picture, Rousseau, wearing a black beret, wearing a painter's uniform, holding a color palette, stands by a dock in Paris, looking very tall. Behind him was a cast-iron bridge, next to which was moored a ship full of flags of all men. Passers-by were no taller than his ankles, dwarfing even the Eiffel Tower. It can be seen that Rousseau was fascinated by the industrial and mechanical inventions that led the world to progress.

Rousseau's Tiger in a Tropical Storm

In 1891

130×162cm

National Gallery of Art

In 1891, Rousseau exhibited Tiger in a Tropical Storm at the Salon exhibition, which became well known to critics and the general public. The tiger is illuminated by lightning in the sky, ready to attack its prey in a fierce storm. Although the prey is not clearly drawn, it leaves a wide space for imagination and speculation about the unknown outcome. Rousseau's paintings often appear naïve and naïve and overlook the technical complexity, but if you look closely, you will find that the jungle is carefully superimposed through layers of colors, the color difference is subtle and the scene is lush, and the rain is painted obliquely by silver pigments.

How did Henri Rousseau, a child who had not systematically studied painting, become a well-known master of post-impressionist art? What are his masterpieces?