Rousseau (Basic Art) [Paperback]

Cornelia Stabenow (Author), Henri Rousseau (Painter)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2001 | Series: Taschen Basic Art

Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) emerged from humble circumstances - reflected in his nickname, "the customs official". An employee in the Paris customs bureau, Rousseau was an autodidact who incrementally worked his way into a position among the artists who were renewing the art world at the turn of the century. It was a difficult journey - for years the art world laughed at the layman's flat, icon-like figures, simple landscapes and, in his late phase, exotic jungle scenes. However his "naive" compositions in fact became an emblem that piqued the interest of the avant-garde. Rousseau's jungle paintings consisted of ornamental variations of plant leaves, among which he set brilliantly coloured predators, natives and naked beauties. In so doing, the artist evinced intuitive principles of design and compositions, which subsequent avant-garde artists had to work out for themselves with great effort. Ultimately winning recognition as an uncompromising modernist, Rousseau inspired comparison with Derain, Cezanne, Matisse and Gauguin. He became acquainted with Apollinaire, Delaunay, Picabia, Brancusi and other important figures; in 1908, Picasso held a legendary banquet in his honour. Today, "Rousseau's myth," a fascinating mixture of primitive idyll and flight from civilization, of concrete and abstract, holds a secure place in the history of art.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 96 pages
• Publisher: Taschen (March 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3822813648
• ISBN-13: 978-3822813645
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.1 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #550,569 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #25 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Arts & Literature > Artists, Architects & Photographers
  • #72 in Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Rococo
  • #82 in Books > Arts & Photography > Schools, Periods & Styles > Baroque

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Melville with a Paint Brush, October 28, 2010

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Giordano Bruno (Wherever I am, I am.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rousseau (Basic Art) (Paperback)

Henri Rousseau astonishes! I've seen it in the eyes of other museum-goers. In New York, Paris, Philadelphia, San Francisco, in every gallery where one of Rousseau' painting is hung, people will stop and gasp. These days, having been 'astonished' by 100 years of expressionism, surrealism, and abstraction, they will instinctively gasp with appreciation. In the 1880s and 1890s, when Impressionism was still regarded as wild and woolly, the exhibition-goers of Paris gasped with contempt and ridicule. The 'public' had a harder time accepting Rousseau than any other painter of the era except, perhaps, Vincent van Gogh. Wouldn't it be 'comforting' to be sure that we today are just as blind? that we are failing to recognize the geniuses amongst us? I'd be happy to be regarded as a hide-bound philistine by my great-grandchildren if I could bequeath them a great under-appreciated painter like Rousseau instead of an ecological catastrophe!

As with all Taschen art publications, this book is beautifully printed on durable paper, with accurate colors and excellent resolution. It will have the strongest visual impact on people lucky enough to have seem some of Henri Rousseau's paintings 'live' in museums. Rousseau's most famous paintings are large; size is a component of their power, as is the tapestry texture of his paint application. But even if you've never had that opportunity, this book will reveal Rousseau's uniqueness to you. There's no mistaking a Rousseau painting for the work of anyone else, before or after him.

That's one of the big questions addressed in the text of his edition, by Cornelia Stabenow: Where does Rousseau fit? Post-impressionist? Anti-impressionist? Early modern? Proto-surrealist? Stabenow takes a good stab at providing an answer, but it would be a "spoiler" to summarize her thoughts. My own image is that he was the "tail that wagged the dog" of modern art. The other big question that Stabenow addresses is the persistent supposition that Rousseau was a "primitive", a naive painter who scarcely understood his own mentality. Stabenow presents quite a different image of Rousseau, of his life, his artistic ambitions, his craft, but once again I will abstain from summarizing her cogent analyses. She writes well, both in the voice of an art critic and as a cultural historian.

But what's this about Melville? I'm absolutely sure that Rousseau never read or heard of Hermann Melville. I doubt that any of the great French painters of his era had. Influence is not the issue. But the exoticism of Rousseau's "jungle" paintings -- unquestionably his greatest -- reminds me intuitively of Melville's South Pacific novels, Typee, Omoo, and Moby Dick. Both the writer and the painter were fervent 'democrats', radical supporters of the Rights of working men. Both were odd blends of materialistic mysticism, passionately committed to objective reality and yet convinced that objects were merely surfaces covering profounder mysteries. Rousseau painted every leaf of his unreal jungles with meticulous detail, just as Melville expounded every mundane facet of whaling as if it had metaphysical urgency. Besides, they were both "douaniers" - customs officers - Rousseau before his success as a professional painter, Melville after his 'failure' as a professional writer.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ¿Where is his jungle?, July 8, 2008

By 

Natalia de la Torre - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Rousseau (Basic Art) (Paperback)

One of the greatest post impressionist artist. Some said he was part of the naïve movement but for me the "naive" Rousseau was the most "wise" man portraiting dreams. Paintings like "The dream" and "Sleeping Gypsy" deserve a winning award. This book is very hard to find. Finally I had to buy it from a third part because Amazon always had the tittle as not available. Get dizzy of pleasure by his perception and prepare not to get trapted inside HIS jungle.