Henri Rousseau – hand-painted reproductions on canvas
Henri Rousseau (1844–1910) painted the best-known jungles in European art without ever leaving France. This page holds 67 of his works, each painted by hand in oil on canvas, in the size you choose, from 50 x 35 cm to almost three metres wide. Below are the questions buyers actually ask in front of these motifs: from where he saw his tigers to how high to hang the canvas.
Did Rousseau ever see a jungle?
He did not. The National Gallery in London, which holds his canvas Surprised! (sold here as Tiger in a Tropical Storm), states in its record that Rousseau’s jungles are entirely imaginary, as he never left France. He served four years in the army from 1863, and the same record says his claim to have been with a French expedition in Mexico has no basis. He studied plants in the Paris botanical garden, the Jardin des Plantes, where tropical species grew beside ordinary house plants, and painted both with the same precision. The grounds held a run-down zoo with lions, tigers and jaguars, and he worked as well from mounted specimens and illustrated magazines. His beasts are therefore assembled from several sources at once – exact in their parts, impossible as a whole. That is why The Equatorial Jungle reads as a botanical atlas and a dream at the same time.
Who was Henri Rousseau?
The London gallery’s record says he was born at Laval and worked from 1871 to 1885 as an inspector at a toll station on the outskirts of Paris. His nickname le douanier, the customs officer, comes from that job, though he never worked for customs – a municipal toll and a customs service are two different things. He took seriously to painting only after retiring, and exhibited from 1886 at the Salon des Indépendants. He was self-taught. Critics mocked him for years, while among the Paris avant-garde he had a small circle of admirers: Picasso, Léger and the poet Apollinaire. In December 1908 the young Picasso held a ceremonial banquet in his honour, attended by many of the city’s leading cultural figures – a detail the same London record carries. To his contemporaries he stayed an eccentric; today he is among the most recognisable painters of his time.
What is naive art?
Naive art is the name for work by painters without academic training, who paint outside the rules taught in schools. Tate’s glossary names Rousseau as the most famous naive artist of modern times and mentions the same nickname, Le Douanier, taken from the full-time job he held. Naive art is not incapacity; it is a different set of rules. Flat colour, sharply drawn outlines, leaves stacked in planes one in front of another and the absence of aerial perspective are consistent across his whole career. His Paris was Post-Impressionist Paris, but he was not an Impressionist, and his canvases cannot be read with that vocabulary.
Why does the perspective look flat?
Because depth is built from size and overlap rather than from light. The leaves at the back are painted as sharply as those in front, so the thicket reads as a wall and not as a space receding. The planes of colour have no soft transitions; where an academic painter would put a shadow, Rousseau puts an edge. The effect is not a shortcoming but the reason these canvases are so still and so memorable: the eye has nowhere to slide, so it stays on the motif. The same procedure is visible in The Dream, his last completed and largest canvas, where a sofa from a bourgeois drawing room stands in the undergrowth with no attempt to reconcile the two spaces.
Was Rousseau a Surrealist?
He was not, for a simple reason: he died in 1910, and Surrealism came later. Tate records that the word was coined in 1917 by the poet Guillaume Apollinaire and defined by André Breton in the Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, fourteen years after Rousseau’s death. It is worth noting that Apollinaire was among those who admired Rousseau in his lifetime. His canvases were made before the movement that later claimed him as a forerunner – not inside it.
Where do the originals hang?
They are scattered across collections in Europe and America. Two records were read for this page: the National Gallery in London holds Surprised! under inventory number NG6421, and the Art Institute of Chicago holds The Waterfall under 1926.262. Tate in London holds a bouquet of flowers by him from about 1909–1910, and our page for that motif cites the same collection. Other large jungle scenes are in public collections in New York, Washington and Paris; those records are not cited on this page, because this server could not read them, and an empty space is better than a detail we have not seen. Where each original hangs is stated on that work’s own page.
How is a hand-painted reproduction made?
Your canvas is begun only after the order. The painter lays oil down in layers in the order the source was built, which matters with Rousseau: foliage first, then the animal, then the weather across everything. We do not print and use no machine application; no two of our versions are quite alike, because a hand makes them. The canvas is stretched on a wooden frame and arrives ready to hang. Before packing we photograph the finished work and send you that photograph for approval.
Which size should I choose, and how does it relate to the original?
Every work comes in several sizes that keep the proportions of the original, so the motif stays the same and only the scale changes. With the large jungle canvases the original is often a metre and a half wide or more, so the smaller sizes suit only walls that cannot take the width; below 90 cm the small foliage begins to merge. With the small Paris scenes it is the other way round: the original measures less than half a metre, and our middle size is already larger than it. Sizes on this page run from 50 x 35 cm to 300 x 221 cm, and prices start at EUR 124. If the size you want is not listed, we make it to order through the painting made by order page.
How high should the painting hang?
The centre of the canvas should sit about 145 cm above the floor, eye level for a standing viewer. Above a sofa the work should take about two thirds of the width of the furniture, with 20 to 25 cm between the seat back and the lower edge. Jungle motifs carry large walls and quiet rooms; the Paris scenes and portraits do better in narrower hallways and alcoves. Motifs on this page are often hung two or three together, for instance The Hungry Lion Throws Itself on the Antelope beside The Snake Charmer.
What can you expect when you order?
We deliver to Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Austria, Hungary and Germany. The canvas travels rolled in a hard tube or stretched on its frame, depending on the size, always in protective wrapping. The making time depends on the size and is confirmed when you order; one work on this page is currently in stock, and every other is made to order. We guarantee that each canvas is painted by hand and that you see a photograph of the finished work before dispatch. The background to his work is described in our article about Henri Rousseau.
Frequently asked questions
Is this a print on canvas?
It is not. Each work is painted in oils on canvas, to order. The paint stands on the surface and can be felt, which a print cannot offer.
How many works by Henri Rousseau do you offer?
Sixty-seven at present, from the large jungle canvases to Paris landscapes and portraits. Each is available in several sizes.
Why do his animals look unusual?
Because he did not paint them from life. He assembled them from animals in the Paris zoo, from mounted specimens and from magazine illustrations, so they are exact in detail and strange in proportion.
Can I have a size that is not listed?
You can. A made-to-order size carries no surcharge for being non-standard; we recommend keeping the proportions of the original.
Which work is the most popular?
Demand is highest for The Equatorial Jungle and Tiger in a Tropical Storm, with The Dream just behind them.
How long does a painting take?
It depends on the size and the motif, and the date is confirmed when you order. Densely painted jungles take longer than quiet landscapes.
Is a frame included?
It is not. The canvas is stretched on a wooden frame and ready to hang; a frame is chosen separately.
How is the work delivered?
Rolled in a tube or stretched on its frame, with tracked shipping and protective wrapping.
Are two copies of the same motif identical?
They are not. Each canvas is painted by hand, so brushwork and shades always differ a little between versions.
Does it work as a gift?
It does. If you would rather leave the choice to the recipient, there is a voucher.
Where do I find the details of an individual work?
On that work’s own page: the year, the size of the original, the technique and the collection that holds it, together with a description of the motif.