In Focus: Henri Rousseau

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the life and work of Henri Rousseau.

I have never quite understood Rousseau whose works seem to stand out in a world of their own against contemporary works be they by the Impressionists or the Realists. Lucrecia Walker led us through a selection of his work spending some time with the gallery’s own “Tiger in Tropical Storm” from 1891.

She pointed out how difficult his work is to analyse as it is so out of its time and that he often wrote about his own work in a confusing way calling himself a Realist. Much of the work shows exotic, imagined scenes even though he never left France.

She also looked at the people who championed him particularly Picasso and we looked in some detail at the banquet he hosted for Rousseau which was attended by most of the avant garde of the time. There seems to have been a fine line between admiring him and mocking him.

I’m not sure I understand him any better but at least I now realise that not many people do.

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