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Henri Rousseau - A Singular Artist
By Russell Shortt
Poor old Rousseau, not the eminent Jean Jacques but the much derided Henri. I agree that his art is a tad too much on the cartoon side and I can see why the great Matisse would visibly stiffen upon hearing Henri’s name. However, I can also see how Picasso saw something of a genius, if albeit a completely unsuspecting one, in his work. Legend holds that Rousseau did not pick up a paintbrush until he was forty and then taught himself. His detractors mocked that these were the very reasons that his work was similar to that of a child. True, it is in many ways childish, naïve and unsophisticated; but somewhat unfairly this led people to brand him as something of a philistine and barbarian. Compounding the prevailing contempt, Rousseau played along with the image; he desperately sought recognition and perhaps he held with the general wisdom that the only thing worse than being talked about was not being talked about.
So whilst the barbs, that he was a simple fool who disregarded everything that the history of art was telling him were flung at him, Rousseau decided not to dodge them but rather to make himself an even bigger target. Interestingly, there is evidence that Rousseau could have painted (may I say more conventionally?) if he so desired (he had painted Delacroix copies), but he was entirely immersed in perception. Everything was abandoned in favour of replicating nature as he saw it, therefore he was never going to develop an individual style or lean on the history of art, it would only distract from his vision or so he believed. It is truly remarkable how rigidly he stuck to his vision, rejecting the courtships of impressionism, post-impressionism, fauvism and cubism. It was as if he was deriving all his inspiration from his subconscious and imagination, similarly his subject matter must have come from these same places. For he was a man who never left Paris, yet his paintings are of jungles, tigers, lions, snake charmers, tropical flowers, deserts and tribesmen. It is a very modern concept is it not? To paint what you can not see and to evoke where you have never been. But many of the avant-garde movement did not agree. They viewed Rousseau as something of an oddity, a one-off, some one who simply did not fit, was beyond any logical progression.
If Rousseau’s work had simply vanished, we may have easily dismissed him as nothing more than a worthless wonder but the fact that he lingers like an awkward uncle at a function forces us to address him. He remained always singular and always without a school who wanted him, however the later Symbolists and Surrealists looked to him for influence and heritage. Perhaps Rousseau’s tragedy was that he was born into the wrong era, an era that scorned him as primitive and naïve. These mocking labels would be transformed into valuable attributes in the post World War One landscape, a landscape where Rousseau’s escapism was very much required and in demand.
Russell Shortt is a travel consultant with Exploring Ireland, the leading specialists in customised, private escorted tours, escorted coach tours and independent self drive tours of Ireland. Article source Russell Shortt, http://www.exploringireland.net/escorted-tours-page.html http://www.visitscotlandtours.com/tours/escorted-tours.html |
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