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60-558: Henri Julien Félix Rousseau ( French: [ɑ̃ʁi ʒyljɛ̃ feliks ʁuso] ; 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

120-594: A contemporary artist would illustrate a work of a contemporary writer. He expanded his presentations by bringing together artists, writers and poets to produce their works as a joint project in more than 40 books. Picasso, for example, illustrated the works of Max Jacob . As a publisher of art with literary works, he had no equal, and was the first to sponsor publications by Max Jacob, Guillaume Apollinaire , André Masson , Gertrude Stein , Pablo Picasso , and many others. In doing so, he launched many literary careers. Kahnweiler's entrepreneurial abilities were so acute that by

180-513: A deeper meaning of "Post-Impressionism" in terms of fine art and traditional art applications. The Advent of Modernism: Post-impressionism and North American Art, 1900-1918 by Peter Morrin, Judith Zilczer, and William C. Agee , the catalogue for an exhibition at the High Museum of Art , Atlanta in 1986, gave a major overview of Post-Impressionism in North America. Canadian Post-Impressionism

240-643: A meticulously scientific approach to colour and composition. The term was used in 1906, and again in 1910 by Roger Fry in the title of an exhibition of modern French painters: Manet and the Post-Impressionists , organized by Fry for the Grafton Galleries in London. Three weeks before Fry's show, art critic Frank Rutter had put the term Post-Impressionist in print in Art News of 15 October 1910, during

300-570: A number of its covers. An equally famous work by Rousseau, included in the collection of John Hay Whitney , is Tropical Forest with Monkeys , which was painted during the last months of his life. It shows one of his signature exotic landscapes, lush, tropical, and virgin. Many of the animals in Rousseau's images have human faces or attributes. The central monkeys in this painting hold green sticks from which strings appear to dangle, suggesting fishing poles and human leisure activities, thereby emphasizing

360-521: A painting by Rousseau being sold on the street as a canvas to be painted over, the younger artist instantly recognised Rousseau's genius and went to meet him. In 1908, Picasso held a half serious, half burlesque banquet in his studio at Le Bateau-Lavoir in Rousseau's honour. Le Banquet Rousseau , "one of the most notable social events of the twentieth century," wrote American poet and literary critic John Malcolm Brinnin , "was neither an orgiastic occasion nor even an opulent one. Its subsequent fame grew from

420-465: A purer Impressionism in the last decade of his life. Vincent van Gogh often used vibrant colour and conspicuous brushstrokes to convey his feelings and his state of mind. Although they often exhibited together, Post-Impressionist artists were not in agreement concerning a cohesive movement. Yet, the abstract concerns of harmony and structural arrangement, in the work of all these artists, took precedence over naturalism . Artists such as Seurat adopted

480-418: A record), held exhibitions of their work and promoted their work internationally. Since he considered himself friends with many of them, he co-owned little sailing boats with his artists. As part of his activities in promoting the work of emerging artists, Kahnweiler sponsored the first exhibition of the work of Georges Braque . He encouraged the practice of publishing Beaux Livres (beautiful books), in which

540-835: A review of the Salon d'Automne published in Art News , 15 October 1910, described Othon Friesz as a "post-impressionist leader"; there was also an advert for the show The Post-Impressionists of France . Three weeks later, Roger Fry used the term again when he organised the 1910 exhibition Manet and the Post-Impressionists , defining it as the development of French art since Édouard Manet . Post-Impressionists extended Impressionism while rejecting its limitations: they continued using vivid colours, sometimes using impasto (thick application of paint) and painting from life, but were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, distort form for expressive effect, and use unnatural or modified colour. The Post-Impressionists were dissatisfied with what they felt

600-532: A review of the Salon d'Automne , where he described Othon Friesz as a "post-impressionist leader"; there was also an advert in the journal for the show The Post-Impressionists of France . Most of the artists in Fry's exhibition were younger than the Impressionists. Fry later explained: "For purposes of convenience, it was necessary to give these artists a name, and I chose, as being the vaguest and most non-committal,

660-469: 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. Rousseau was born in Laval, Mayenne , France, in 1844 into the family of a tinsmith; he was forced to work there as a small boy. He attended Laval High School as a day student, and then as a boarder after his father became a debtor and his parents had to leave

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720-724: A small village in the Palatinate . Kahnweiler grew up in Stuttgart and was trained to study finance and philosophy. His upbringing and education at a German Gymnasium prepared him for his life as an art connoisseur and pragmatic businessman. Early employment in the family business of stock brokerage in Germany and Paris gave way to an interest in art collecting while Kahnweiler was still in his twenties. He opened his first small art gallery (4 by 4 meters) in Paris in 1907 at 28 rue Vignon, at age 23. There

780-615: Is an offshoot of Post-Impressionism. In 1913, the Art Association of Montreal's Spring show included the work of Randolph Hewton , A. Y. Jackson and John Lyman : it was reviewed with sharp criticism by the Montreal Daily Witness and the Montreal Daily Star . Post-Impressionism was extended to include a painting by Lyman, who had studied with Matisse . Lyman wrote in defence of the term and defined it. He referred to

840-553: Is based upon a Rousseau painting. Underground comic artist Bill Griffith drew a four-page biographical sketch of Rousseau, A Couch in the Sun , which was included in issue #2 of the Arcade anthology . The visual style of Michel Ocelot 's 1998 animation film, Kirikou and the Sorceress , is partly inspired by Rousseau, particularly the depiction of the jungle vegetation. A Rousseau painting

900-474: The history of art and aesthetics . He also spent his time visiting the city's museums and art galleries. Besides the museums in Paris, he took trips around the European continent to see what was being shown in museums and art galleries outside France. He gave his first interview on Cubism in 1912, and it was actual historical events that led to his career as a historian. There is a view that Kahnweiler's sensibility

960-618: The 'Salon Cubists', such as Jean Metzinger , Albert Gleizes , Fernand Léger , Robert Delaunay , Henri Le Fauconnier , Marcel Duchamp and Francis Picabia . The outbreak of World War I in 1914 not only ruptured the Cubist experiments in art, but also forced Kahnweiler to live in exile in Switzerland; due to his German citizenship, he was considered an alien under French law. Many German nationals living in France had their possessions sequestered by

1020-399: The 1950s his art gallery was among the top 100 French companies in terms of export figures. Although the financial support for artists was an important contribution to art history, he was also a significant figure for his work as an art historian and eyewitness to the emergence of Cubism during the period 1907–1914. When working in Paris, his spare time was devoted to reading and understanding

1080-451: The 20th century. According to the present state of discussion, Post-Impressionism is a term best used within Rewald's definition in a strictly historical manner, concentrating on French art between 1886 and 1914, and re-considering the altered positions of impressionist painters like Claude Monet , Camille Pissarro , Auguste Renoir , and others—as well as all new schools and movements at

1140-420: The 20th century—yet this second volume remained unfinished. Rewald wrote that "the term 'Post-Impressionism' is not a very precise one, though a very convenient one"; convenient, when the term is by definition limited to French visual arts derived from Impressionism since 1886. Rewald's approach to historical data was narrative rather than analytic, and beyond this point he believed it would be sufficient to "let

1200-578: The Antelope was exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants near works by younger leading avant-garde artists such as Henri Matisse , in what is now seen as the first showing of The Fauves . Rousseau's painting may even have influenced the naming of the Fauves. In 1907, he was commissioned by artist Robert Delaunay 's mother, Berthe, Comtesse de Delaunay, to paint The Snake Charmer . When Pablo Picasso happened upon

1260-875: The British show which he described as a great exhibition of modern art. A wide and diverse variety of artists are called by this name in Canada. Among them are James Wilson Morrice , John Lyman , David Milne , and Tom Thomson , members of the Group of Seven , and Emily Carr . In 2001, the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa organized the travelling exhibition The Birth of the Modern: Post-Impressionism in Canada, 1900-1920 . Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (25 June 1884 – 11 January 1979)

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1320-527: The French expedition to Mexico , and he listened to their stories of the subtropical country they had encountered. To the critic Arsène Alexandre , he described his frequent visits to the Jardin des Plantes : "When I go into the glass houses and I see the strange plants of exotic lands, it seems to me that I enter into a dream." Along with his exotic scenes there was a concurrent output of smaller topographical images of

1380-505: The French state, and as a result, Kahnweiler's collection was confiscated in 1914 and sold by the government in a series of auctions at the Hôtel Drouot between 1921 and 1923. Among these was Pablo Picasso 's "Buffalo Bill," which Kahnweiler acquired from Picasso in 1912 and was auctioned at Hôtel Drouot in the "Fourth Sale of Sequestered Art," May 7-8, 1923, and bought in auction at Christie's for $ 12,412,500 on Nov. 17, 2022. During

1440-615: The French writer André Salmon recalled the setting of the illustrious banquet: Here the nights of the Blue Period passed... here the days of the Rose Period flowered... here the Demoiselles d'Avignon halted in their dance to re-group themselves in accordance with the golden number and the secret of the fourth dimension... here fraternized the poets elevated by serious criticism into the School of

1500-566: The Rue Ravignan... here in these shadowy corridors lived the true worshippers of fire ... here one evening in the year 1908 unrolled the pageantry of the first and last banquet offered by his admirers to the painter Henri Rousseau called the Douanier. After Rousseau's retirement in 1893, he supplemented his small pension with part-time jobs and work such as playing a violin in the streets. He also worked briefly at Le petit Journal , where he produced

1560-668: The Tate and the Musée d'Orsay , where the show also appeared. The exhibition, encompassing 48 of his paintings, was on display at the National Gallery of Art in Washington from 16 July to 15 October 2006 and at the Grand Palais in Paris from 15 March to 19 June 2006. Post-Impressionism The term Post-Impressionism was first used by art critic Roger Fry in 1906. Critic Frank Rutter in

1620-514: The artistic circles they frequented (or were in opposition to), including: Furthermore, in his introduction to Post-Impressionism, Rewald opted for a second volume featuring Toulouse-Lautrec , Henri Rousseau "le Douanier", Les Nabis and Cézanne as well as the Fauves , the young Picasso and Gauguin's last trip to the South Seas ; it was to expand the period covered at least into the first decade of

1680-409: The artists. Concurrently, the primary means for avant-garde painters and sculptors to show their works to a wider audience remained the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon d'Automne . Kahnweiler forbade his 'gallery Cubists' from exhibiting at these major Salons, and by so doing, actually removed them from public view. From the viewpoint of the general public, Cubism came to be more associated with

1740-409: The beginning of World War I , but limited their approach widely on the 1890s to France. Other European countries are pushed back to standard connotations, and Eastern Europe is completely excluded. In Germany, it was Paul Baum and Carl Schmitz-Pleis who, in retrospect, provided the decisive impetus. So, while a split may be seen between classical 'Impressionism' and 'Post-Impressionism' in 1886,

1800-400: The brusque, concentrated forms of Rousseau’s portrait of the writer Pierre Loti ." In 1911, a retrospective exhibition of Rousseau's works was shown at the Salon des Indépendants . His paintings were also shown at the first Blaue Reiter exhibition. Critics have noted the influence of Rousseau on Wallace Stevens 's poetry. See, for instance, Stevens's " Floral Decorations for Bananas " in

1860-451: The city and its suburbs. He claimed to have invented a new genre of portrait landscape , which he achieved by starting a painting with a specific view, such as a favourite part of the city, and then depicting a person in the foreground, most notably his early Myself, Portrait-Landscape (1890). Rousseau's flat, seemingly childish style was disparaged by many critics; people often were shocked by his work or ridiculed it. His ingenuousness

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1920-409: The clouds from the gas chambers ," as he put it in his seminal work on Juan Gris . Kahnweiler was very prolific as an author, but never produced a full autobiography. There was, however, a series of interviews first aired on French television, then published and translated as a book under the title Mes galleries et mes peintres ("My galleries and my painters"). For his 80th birthday, a Festschrift

1980-415: The collection Harmonium . The American poet Sylvia Plath was a great admirer of Rousseau, referencing his art, as well as drawing inspiration from his works in her poetry. The poem, "Yadwigha, on a Red Couch, Among Lilies" (1958), is based upon his painting, The Dream , whilst the poem "Snakecharmer" (1957) is based upon his painting The Snake Charmer . The song "The Jungle Line", by Joni Mitchell ,

2040-489: The end and the extent of 'Post-Impressionism' remains under discussion. For Bowness and his contributors as well as for Rewald, ' Cubism ' was an absolutely fresh start, and so Cubism has been seen in France since the beginning, and later in England. Meanwhile, Eastern European artists, however, did not care so much for western traditions, and proceeded to manners of painting called abstract and suprematic —terms expanding far into

2100-612: The epitaph Brâncuși put on the tombstone: We salute you Gentle Rousseau you can hear us. Delaunay, his wife, Monsieur Queval and myself. Let our luggage pass duty free through the gates of heaven. We will bring you brushes paints and canvas. That you may spend your sacred leisure in the light and Truth of Painting. As you once did my portrait facing the stars, lion and the gypsy. Rousseau claimed he had "no teacher other than nature", although he admitted he had received "some advice" from two established Academic painters , Félix Auguste Clément and Jean-Léon Gérôme . Essentially, he

2160-686: The fact that it was a colorful happening within a revolutionary art movement at a point of that movement's earliest success, and from the fact that it was attended by individuals whose separate influences radiated like spokes of creative light across the art world for generations." Guests at the banquet Rousseau included: Guillaume Apollinaire , Jean Metzinger , Juan Gris , Max Jacob , Marie Laurencin , André Salmon , Maurice Raynal , Daniel-Henri Kahnweiler , Leo Stein , and Gertrude Stein . Maurice Raynal, in Les Soirées de Paris , 15 January 1914, p. 69, wrote about "Le Banquet Rousseau". Years later

2220-454: The great artists of his time who found themselves without adequate recognition and little or no interest among collectors. Initial purchases included works by Kees van Dongen , André Derain , André Masson , Fernand Léger , Georges Braque , Juan Gris , Maurice de Vlaminck and several other artists of the same generation. To use his own word, Kahnweiler wanted to "defend" great artists, but only those who had no dealers and of whose talents he

2280-479: The importance and beauty of Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and immediately wanted to buy it along with all of Picasso's works. Picasso wrote of Kahnweiler, "What would have become of us if Kahnweiler hadn't had a business sense?" Kahnweiler's appreciation of Picasso's talents was especially gratifying to the artist, since he was largely unknown and destitute at the time when many of his most famous works were created. In his gallery, Kahnweiler supported many of

2340-411: The museums". He achieved this by reducing objects to their basic shapes while retaining the saturated colours of Impressionism. The Impressionist Camille Pissarro experimented with Neo-Impressionist ideas between the mid-1880s and the early 1890s. Discontented with what he referred to as romantic Impressionism, he investigated pointillism , which he called scientific Impressionism, before returning to

2400-468: The name of Post-Impressionism. This merely stated their position in time relatively to the Impressionist movement." John Rewald limited the scope to the years between 1886 and 1892 in his pioneering publication on Post-Impressionism: From Van Gogh to Gauguin (1956). Rewald considered this a continuation of his 1946 study, History of Impressionism , and pointed out that a "subsequent volume dedicated to

2460-452: The persona of the humble, oblivious naïf by detailing his assured single-mindedness and tracked the extensive influence his work exerted on several generations of vanguard artists," critic Roberta Smith wrote in a review of a later exhibition. A major exhibition of his work, "Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris", was shown at the Tate Modern from 3 November 2005 to 5 February 2006, organised by

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2520-495: The quasi-human experience of the animals. In this sense Rousseau's anthropomorphized primates can be seen not as true wild beasts, but rather as representing an escape from the " jungle " of Paris and the everyday grind of civilized life. Rousseau exhibited his final painting, The Dream , in March 1910, at the Salon des Independants . In the same month Rousseau suffered a phlegmon in his leg, one which he ignored. In August, when he

2580-442: The second half of the post-impressionist period": Post-Impressionism: From Gauguin to Matisse , was to follow. This volume would extend the period covered to other artistic movements derived from Impressionism, though confined to the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Rewald focused on such outstanding early Post-Impressionists active in France as van Gogh , Gauguin , Seurat , and Redon . He explored their relationships as well as

2640-406: The sources speak for themselves." Rival terms like Modernism or Symbolism were never as easy to handle, for they covered literature, architecture and other arts as well, and they expanded to other countries. To meet the recent discussion, the connotations of the term 'Post-Impressionism' were challenged again: Alan Bowness and his collaborators expanded the period covered forward to 1914 and

2700-556: The town upon the seizure of their house. Though mediocre in some of his high school subjects, Rousseau won prizes for drawing and music. After high school, he worked for a lawyer and studied law, but "attempted a small perjury and sought refuge in the army." He served four years, starting in 1863. With his father's death, Rousseau moved to Paris in 1868 to support his widowed mother as a government employee. In 1868, he married Clémence Boitard, his landlord's 15-year-old daughter, with whom he had six children (only one survived). In 1871, he

2760-509: The turn of the century: from Cloisonnism to Cubism . The declarations of war, in July/August 1914, indicate probably far more than the beginning of a World War —they signal a major break in European cultural history, too. Along with general art history information given about "Post-Impressionism" works, there are many museums that offer additional history, information and gallery works, both online and in house, that can help viewers understand

2820-547: The years of exile (until 1920), Kahnweiler studied and wrote works such as the Der Weg zum Kubismus and Confessions esthétiques . Writing becoming a passion he continued over his lifetime, and he authored hundreds of books and major articles. The second period of enforced writing came during a period of internal exile caused by the events of World War II. As a Jew, the Nazis forced him to flee Paris. He remained in France, in hiding. "Under

2880-570: The young artist Félix Vallotton wrote: "His tiger surprising its prey ought not to be missed; it's the alpha and omega of painting." Yet it was more than a decade before Rousseau returned to depicting his vision of jungles. In 1893, Rousseau moved to a studio in Montparnasse where he lived and worked until his death in 1910. In 1897, he produced one of his most famous paintings, La Bohémienne endormie ( The Sleeping Gypsy ). In 1905, Rousseau's large jungle scene The Hungry Lion Throws Itself on

2940-515: Was a German-born art collector, and one of the most notable French art dealers of the 20th century. He became prominent as an art gallery owner in Paris beginning in 1907 and was among the first champions of Pablo Picasso , Georges Braque and the Cubist movement in art. Kahnweiler was born in 1884 in Mannheim , Baden to a prosperous Jewish family. His family had previously moved from Rockenhausen ,

3000-448: Was a family precedent for such an enterprise, since his uncle, who ran a famous stock brokerage house in London , was a major art collector of traditional English art works and furniture. Kahnweiler is considered to have been one of the greatest supporters of the Cubist art movement through his activities as an art dealer and spokesman for artists. He was among the first people to recognize

3060-613: Was admitted to the Necker Hospital in Paris where his son had died, he was found to have gangrene in his leg. After an operation, he died from a blood clot on 2 September 1910. At his funeral, seven friends stood at his grave: the painters Paul Signac and Manuel Ortiz de Zárate ; the artist couple Robert Delaunay and Sonia Terk ; the sculptor Constantin Brâncuși ; Rousseau's landlord Armand Queval, and Guillaume Apollinaire , who wrote

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3120-444: Was appointed as a collector of the octroi of Paris, collecting taxes on goods entering Paris. His wife died in 1888 and he married Josephine Noury in 1898. From 1886, he exhibited regularly in the Salon des Indépendants , and, although his work was not placed prominently, it drew an increasing following over the years. Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!) was exhibited in 1891, and Rousseau received his first serious review when

3180-555: Was convinced. Rather than exhibiting appealing works by established artists from the past and present, Kahnweiler championed burgeoning artists who had come from all over the globe to live and work in Montparnasse and Montmartre at the time. Thus Paul Cézanne , although a great artist, was considered too old to be represented, and his work was already represented by the dealer Ambroise Vollard in any case. Along with such men as Alfred Flechtheim , Paul Cassirer , Daniel Wildenstein , Léonce Rosenberg and Paul Rosenberg , Kahnweiler

3240-652: Was extreme, and he always aspired, in vain, to conventional acceptance. Many observers commented that he painted like a child, but the work shows sophistication with his particular technique. Rousseau's work exerted an extensive influence on several generations of avant-garde artists, including Pablo Picasso , Jean Hugo , Fernand Léger Jean Metzinger , Max Beckmann , and the Surrealists . According to Roberta Smith, an art critic writing in The New York Times , "Beckmann’s amazing self-portraits, for example, descend from

3300-556: Was one of the influential art connoisseurs of the 20th century. As a businessman, Kahnweiler pioneered many new methods of working with artists and art dealing; these are now established practices in the industry. In 1907, when there were only half a dozen viable galleries in Paris, he made contracts with artists to buy all of their work in order to free them from financial worries and permit them to concentrate on their creative work. He met with them daily to discuss their work, photographed each work they produced (he felt it imperative to have

3360-515: Was published with contributions by the world's leading philosophers, art historians, and artists, all of whom emphasized the vital importance of his unique contribution to art history – an importance still not yet fully appreciated, probably due to the fact that he has been viewed mostly as an art dealer and not as an art historian . This situation has been aggravated because some of his major works on aesthetics were either never translated into English or badly translated. The omission of key elements of

3420-547: Was self-taught and is considered to be a naïve or primitive painter. His best-known paintings depict jungle scenes, even though he never left France or saw a jungle. Stories spread by admirers that his army service included the French expeditionary force to Mexico are unfounded. His inspiration came from illustrations in children's books and the botanical gardens in Paris , as well as tableaux of taxidermy wild animals. During his term of service, he had also met soldiers who had survived

3480-401: Was such that his gallery, and the way he styled and developed it, was as much a Cubist gallery as were the paintings by Picasso and the other Cubist painters. The gallery had a clear aesthetic position, uncompromising integrity, financial stability and creative development. During the years 1907-1914 his gallery was a central cradle for Cubism, not only to display the works, but where one also met

3540-404: Was the triviality of subject matter and the loss of structure in Impressionist paintings, though they did not agree on the way forward. Georges Seurat and his followers concerned themselves with pointillism , the systematic use of tiny dots of colour. Paul Cézanne set out to restore a sense of order and structure to painting, to "make of Impressionism something solid and durable, like the art of

3600-628: Was used as an inspiration for the 2005 animated film Madagascar . Rousseau's 1908 painting Fight Between a Tiger and a Buffalo was used as the inspiration for a series of 2021 advertisements concerning the rebrand of Facebook into the metaverse company Meta . Two major museum exhibitions of his work were held in 1984–85 (in Paris, at the Grand Palais; and in New York, at the Museum of Modern Art ) and in 2001 (Tübingen, Germany). "These efforts countered

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