The Great Masters Of Painting: Rousseau

Henri Rousseau is considered to be representative of the naïve painters. Exoticism abounds in his work even though Rousseau never left Paris. His exoticism is imaginary and stylised, taken from the Jardin des Plantes, the Jardin d'Acclimatation, illustrated magazines and botanical journals of the time. He was criticised for his frontal portraits of frozen figures, his lack of perspective, his bright colours, his naivety and clumsiness, but his paintings, on the borderline between reality and fiction, civilisation and savagery, nevertheless provoke a certain fascination in the observer.