NARRATOR:
A troupe of incredible simian creatures romp in a lush jungle wonderland. Two of them, strangely resembling bearded men, swing from a tree bearing ripe oranges. Above, on the far left, another monkey looks on, nearly hidden behind the branches. At the lower center, limbs reach up from spiky grass, catching the fruit shaken from the tree.
Henri Rousseau organized this strange paradise in a lattice pattern of horizontal rows. The enormous foliage is so dense it blocks out the background, keeping this magical scene up close to us. The entire canvas glows in an eerie light, with every element in crystal-clear focus.
The famed poet Guillaume Apollinaire recalled that Rousseau himself was deeply affected by his work:
APOLLINAIRE (ACTOR):
“He had such a strong sense of reality that sometimes when painting a fantastic subject he would become terrified, and all atremble, he would be obliged to open the window.”
NARRATOR:
Dream worlds like this one were Henri Rousseau’s specialty—and are unique to this self-taught painter. He was called Le Douanier, the customs inspector, and indeed that was his job until he retired in 1885 and devoted himself to painting. Fellow artists of the period and succeeding generations of painters have admired his otherworldly vision and inventive technique.
Exotic Landscape
1910
Henri Rousseau (French, 1844-1910)
On View
A low-level bureaucrat in the toll collector’s office of the Paris city government, Rousseau received no formal training as an artist. Frankly naive, richly imagined dreamscapes like this scene of humanoid monkeys at play earned him the affection of avant-garde artists and writers, including Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire, who nicknamed him “Le Douanier” (the Customs Officer). Rousseau referred to his jungle landscapes as “my Mexican pictures,” claiming they were inspired by his military service in Mexico. But in fact Le Douanier had most likely never left France. His compositions packed with exotic flora and fauna were based on a careful study of picture books and animals at the Paris zoo.
Details
- Artist Name: Henri Rousseau (French, 1844-1910)
- Title: Exotic Landscape
- Date: 1910
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 51-1/4 x 64 in. (130.2 x 162.6 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1971.3.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
[Ambrose Vollard, Paris, 1910].
Tetzen-Lund, Copenhagen, by 1922.
[Paul Rosenberg, Paris].
[Chester H. Johnson Galleries, Chicago].
Mrs. Robert F. McCormick, Chicago and Washington; by 1933 (sale, New York, Sotheby's, 21 October 1971, lot 90, to);
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Tetzen-Lund, Copenhagen, by 1922.
[Paul Rosenberg, Paris].
[Chester H. Johnson Galleries, Chicago].
Mrs. Robert F. McCormick, Chicago and Washington; by 1933 (sale, New York, Sotheby's, 21 October 1971, lot 90, to);
The Norton Simon Foundation.
Paintings, Drawings & Sculpture Collected by Yale Alumni
- New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery, 1960-05-19 to 1960-06-26
Henri Rousseau
- Art Institute of Chicago, 1942-01-22 to 1942-02-23
Henri Rousseau dit le Douanier
- Paris, Galerie Charpentier, 1961 to
Henri Rousseau
- Wildenstein & Co. (New York, N.Y.), 1963-05-25 to
A Century of Progress
- Art Institute of Chicago, 1933-06-01 to 1933-11-01
Three Centuries of French Art: Selections from The Norton Simon, Inc. Museum of Art and The Norton Simon Foundation_1
- California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1973-05-03 to 1976-06-15
Reinstallation of South Wing
- Norton Simon Museum, 1993-10-07 to 1995-08-13
- Steadman, David W., The Connoisseur, pl. E pp. 226, 229
- Rich, D. C., Henri Rousseau, pp. 69, 72
- Bouret, J., Henri Rousseau, pl. 49 p. 157
- Vallier, D., Henri Rousseau, no. 171 p. 26, 310
- Bouret, J., Henri Rousseau, pl. 15
- University: A Princeton Quarterly, no. 60
- Steadman, D., The Connoisseur, fig. E. pp. 226, 299
- Vallier, D., Henri Rousseau, p. 89
- Brommer, G., Discovering Art History, p. 387
- Zervos, C., Rousseau, 1927, p. 86a
- Certigny, H., La verité sur le Dounier Rousseau, 1961, pp. 427-28
- Vallier, D., Rousseau, il Doganiere, 1969, no. 252, pl. 112, 63
- Keay, C., Henri Rousseau Le Douanier, 1976, pl. 32 p. 177
- Brommer, G., Landscapes, 1977, p. 40
- Alley, R., Portrait of a Primitive, 1978, pp. 71, 72, 79
- Kolle, Helmud, Henri Rousseau, 1979, no. 33
- Le Pichon, Y., The World of Henri Rousseau, 1982, p. 163
- Stabenow, C. von, Henri Rousseau. Die Dschungelbilder, 1984, pl. 23
- Certigny, H., Le Douanier Rousseau et son temps, biographie et catalogue raisonné, 1984, no. 309 p. 668
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, pp. 174-175
- Plazy, G., Le Douanier Rousseau-Paysages, 1994, p. 58
- Dinerstein, Eric et al., A Workbook for Conducting Biological Assessments and Developing Biodiversity Visions for Ecoregion-Based Conservation, Part I: Terrestrial Ecoregions, 2000, cover
- The Museums of the World, 2001, pp. 26-27
- Schimmel, Paul and Thomas Lawson, Laura Owens, 2003, p. 32
- Koch, Dr. Christof, The Quest for Consciousness: A Neurobiological Approach, 2003, cover
- Dupre, Darwin's Legacy: What Evolution Means Today, 2003, cover
- Morris, Francis, Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris, 2005, fig. 83 p. 113
- Dupre, Darwin's Legacy: What Evolution Means Today (Paperback Edition), 2005, (detail) cover
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 748 p. 334
- Professor Neil Spiller, Architecture and Surrealism, 2016, p.19(ill.), 20
- Sotheby's, Hong Kong, Walter Spies: The Magic Realist, 2018, pp. 19-21
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