Henri Rousseau was a French artist of the post-impressionism movement. He was not born into a wealthy family. His father was a plumber and also a debtor. Although he was not the brightest student in school, he received awards for drawing and music. It is impressive because he taught himself how to draw as a hobby and was able to make a name for himself from his work. Prior to his art career he served in the army and worked for Paris’s Customs office. He only focused entirely on his art when he retired. His works were liked by surrealists and he was also honored by Picasso in 1908.
I chose the piece “The Dream” by Henri Rousseau from 1910. The piece shows a nude woman laying on the sofa in a jungle setting. The jungle is depicted in dull green background completed with twenty two different shades of green. The painting also includes jungle animals such as lions, birds, elephants, blooming flowers and fruits which are depicted in bright colors, showing a contrast in color with the background and allowing them to stand out. The piece also gives a mysterious feeling. The elephant seem to be hiding behind the forest, the lions are staring intensively at something and the monkey-like creature with the instrument blends into the dull background compared to the other animals that are depicted in bright colors which makes me wonder: why are they depicted that way?
“The Dream” reflects aspects of modernism because it leads to curiosity and also seems to show aspects of surrealism. It allows you to take what you see in the painting and interpret what the artist is trying to tell us. In class, we defined surrealism as a way to connect reality and imagination and how art can allow those two things to come together. In the painting we see the woman sitting on a sofa which shows reality and the forest setting seems to be in her imagination. It seems like the woman sitting inside her imagination in the jungle setting. She is smiling reaching her hand towards the jungle and seems like it is a meaningful, happy place to her and she wish to be there.
I encountered this piece when I just finished walking about the Picasso gallery in the MOMA and was about to enter another one. Once I stepped into the new gallery, I was drawn to this piece because of the size of the painting. It was huge compared to the paintings surrounding it. I was also drawn by the beautiful jungle setting and the use of colors. The woman, animals and blooming flowers were bright in contrast with the dark dull green color for the rest of the painting which made me want to look at the painting in detail.
Questions:
-Why is the monkey looking creature that is playing a instrument blended among the dull green color of the jungle when the other animals are depicted in bright colors? What does it represent in the overall painting?
Sources-
http://www.theartstory.org/movement-surrealism.htm
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-rousseau-henri-artworks.htm#pnt_5
Sophia, Something must have gone wrong when you posted. The image you tried to upload does not seem to be displayed (at least not on my computer!) In any case, as we discussed, you’ve chosen one of Rousseau’s most famous and most beloved works. I think you have touched upon the most important thing that links this work to Modernism — its emphasis on imagination. We know that what we are looking at is not objective reality; rather it is a scene that has been generated by the human imagination or if we want to use Freud’s understanding of dreams, it’s been generated by the human subconscious or unconscious. Nice work!
JS