Collection: Henri Rousseau

Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (21 May 1844 – 2 September 1910) was a French post-Impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier (the customs officer), a humorous description of his occupation as a toll and tax collector. He started painting seriously in his early forties; by age 49, he retired from his job to work on his art full-time. Ridiculed during his lifetime by critics, he came to be recognized as a self-taught genius whose works are of high artistic quality. Rousseau's work exerted an extensive influence on several generations of avant-garde artists.

His style took its cues from Jean-Léon Gérôme and Léon Bonnat. Among his canonical works are The Sleeping Gypsy, Tiger in a Tropical Storm, The Dream, and Myself: Portrait – Landscape. He worked primarily in still life, landscape painting, and figure painting. His work is rooted in Post-impressionism, primitivism, and naïve art.

The work sits within the Expressionism & Fauvism tradition.