Presentation

Henri Rousseau was born in Laval, France in 1844. He was forced work in the Loire valley with a family of a tinsmith. He was a very good student when it came to art and music classes.  He ended up serving four years in the military. His best knowing paintings deal with the jungle although he never left France to visit any jungles. Most of his ideas came from books and from stories told to him by his partners in the military. His paintings had influences on painters like Picasso and Jean Hugo.

Bridges in Sevres:

This is also one of Henri’s paintings that you can actually purchase off of a website. There wasn’t real information on where it was located. Here Henri illustrated a more modern time with boats, planes, and air balloons being used all at the same time. This is also a 2D painting. The depth in this painting is implied very well show by the separation of the planes and the air balloons and the blimps. Ligh is implied on different corners of the painting. The Colors of this painting are very light compared to his other work. This allows the painting to have a warm feeling. The focal point on this painting is all the mediums of transportation. Everyone is using something different which different purposes. The subjective idea in my opinion is Henri showing us the different interest of people within an area. Most sharing one common thing which is the need to experience life in several ways.

 

Sleeping Gypsy:

This is one of Henri’s noticed pieces. In this painting he has a lion around a sleeping woman under the moon light. This is oil on canvas painting. He finished it in 1897 and is currently located at the museum of Modern Art. This painting is 2D. It has both positive and negative space. The objects being the positive and the night sky the negative. Light is implied by the moon since it is moon light, which he did an excellent job in doing. His colors are somewhat dull but complementary at the same time. The focal point in this piece is the lion over the sleeping woman. My subjective though of this painting is that the artist tries to show how the fiercest animal from the jungle can be gentle enough to sleep around of. There is probably a message that nothing should scare you and sleep in peace, because if the worst is meant to happy, it most likely will.

                                         

The Dream:

This was Henri’s last exhibited panting. He finished this in 1910 and is currently in MoMa. Here we have a woman as natural as birth laying down witnessing the nature she is around. This is another 2D painting done with oil on canvas.  There positive and negative spaces on this painting are debatable. What is definite is that there is implied depth in the picture although it is not 3D. The lighting on this piece is implied. The colors Henri uses are very dark and constant like green all around the painting. There are light colors be take up a small part of it. The lady in the painting is the focal point. She is looking towards something which as well directs your eyes there. My subjective thought on this piece is the peaceful mind of state she is in is not obtainable outside of nature. No one is there to judge your defects but just be one with another.