Topic 2 - The Dream, Rousseau, 1910

when was it painted?

1910

who painted it?

Henri Rousseau

Rousseau is known for his…

stylised and naive but detailed painting style

Rousseau was largely ….. taught

self

part of a series of…

25 Jungle Canvases

the dense foliage was directly observed at the…

Jardin des Pantes

where was the Jardin des Plantes?

in the Natural History Museum of Paris

Rousseau himself stated: “When I am in…

these hothouses, it seems to me that I am entering a dream.”

the overall impression is one of…

abundance

it poses as a lush, fertile garden of Eden-style refuge from…

the modern world

the foliage is given as highly…

decorative and flattened appearance

the whole painting is treated like a…

still-life - there is not dynamism in the scene, not even wind

to the left there is a…

reclining female nude on a couch set in the jungle landscape

there is another figure just to the right, a…

snake charmer hidden in the greenery

Rousseau used around … shades of green for all the foliage

40

quite a dark painting, the only source of light is..

the moonlight we get from the top right

rousseau never actually saw a…

jungle in person

his interpretation of a jungle was constructed from…

gardens, magazines and stories from soldiers

his style was criticised for being too …. and clashing with …..

naive and ‘primitive’ / academic

Rousseau’s freedoms allowed him to…

present the familiar in an unfamiliar way

what shows the cubist influence?

the shallow picture plane associated with cubist spatial experiments

how is the influence of German Expressionism shown?

the naivety of his style, associated with the authenticity of children’s art which was prized by the GE movement

how is the influence of the Surrealists seen?

dream-like subject matter, the psychological jolt explored by Surrealists

Robert Hughes argues that the ….. was involuntary

“intense stylisation”