ROUSSEAU, HENRI

born May 21, 1844, Laval, Fr. died Sept. 2, 1910, Paris The Snake-Charmer, oil painting by Henri Rousseau, 1907; in the Muse d'Orsay, Paris. byname Le Douanier (French: The Customs Officer) French painter, archetype of the modern naive artist. He expressed himself mainly in richly coloured and meticulously detailed pictures of lush jungles, wild beasts, and exotic figures (e.g., The Sleeping Gypsy, 1897, and The Snake-Charmer, 1907 [see photograph]). After exhibiting with the Fauves in 1905, he became an object of admiration to avant-garde artists. Additional reading W. Uhde, Henri Rousseau (1914), the foremost contemporary work (in French) fundamental to studies of Rousseau; C. Zervos, Henri Rousseau (1927), a work (in French) written by an eminent critic of modern art, with excellent reproductions; D.C. Rich, Henri Rousseau (1942), a serious study containing valuable information on Rousseau's paintings preserved in the United States; Alfred Werner, Henri Rousseau (18441910) (1957); H. Certigny, La Vrit sur le Douanier Rousseau (1961). D. Vallier, Henri Rousseau (1961; Eng. trans. 1964), the most important monograph; Andr Salmon, Rousseau (1963); Tout l'oeuvre peint de Henri Rousseau: Documentation et catalogue raisonn (1970), a scientific study containing all of Rousseau's paintings, classified for the first time in chronological order, with an appendix where the works attributed to Rousseau appear; and Ronald Alley, Portrait of a Primitive (1978). Major Works: Landscape with Tree Trunks (1887; Barnes Foundation, Merion, Pa.); The Present and the Past (c. 1889; Barnes Foundation); Myself: Portrait-Landscape (1890; Museum of Modern Art, Prague); L'Octroi (c. 1890; Courtauld Institute Galleries, London); The Artillerymen (c. 1893; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City); War (1894; Louvre, Paris); The Child Among Rocks (c. 1895; Philadelphia Museum of Art); The Sleeping Gypsy (1897; Museum of Modern Art, New York City); Banks of the Seine (c. 1898; private collection, Paris); Spring in the Valley of the Bivre (c. 1904; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City); The Hungry Lion (1905; private collection, Switzerland); L'Herbage (c. 1906; Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass.); The Repast of the Lion (1907; Metropolitan Museum of Art); The Snake-Charmer (1907; Louvre); La Bougie Rose (1907; Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.); Football Players (1908; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum); The Rabbit's Feeding (1908; Barnes Foundation); The Muse Inspiring the Poet (1909; Pushkin Fine Arts Museum, Moscow); Promenade au Luxembourg (1909; Pushkin Fine Arts Museum); Vase of Flowers (1909; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo); View of the le Saint-Louis (1909; Phillips Collection); Yadivigha's Dream (1910; Museum of Modern Art, New York City); The Cascade (1910; Art Institute of Chicago); Landscape (c. 1910; Pushkin Fine Arts Museum); Tropical Forest with Monkeys (1910; John Hay Whitney Collection, New York City).