ROUSSEAU

Art geniuses

An episode from the series THE GREAT MASTERS OF PAINTING

Synopsis

Henri Rousseau is generally considered to be representative of the naive painters.

Exoticism abounds in his work, even though Rousseau hardly ever left Paris since his inspiration is imaginary and stylized, coming from local gardens, illustrated magazines and botanical journals of the time.

He was criticized for his frontal portraits of frozen characters, his lack of perspective, his vivid colors, his naivety and clumsiness, but his paintings, on the borderline between reality and fiction, civilization and the wild, are nevertheless mesmerizing.