Description
| Title: | Meadowland |
| Other titles: | The Pasture (catalogue title) |
| Painter: | Henri Rousseau |
| Year painted: | 1910 |
| Original size: | 46 cm x 55.3 cm (height x width, as published) |
| Original technique: | oil on canvas |
| Painting style: | naive art (primitivism) |
| Held at: | Artizon Museum, Tokyo, Japan (inv. gy042) |
| Our reproduction: | hand-painted oil on canvas, eight sizes or a size made to order |
Meadowland is a painting by Henri Rousseau, oil on canvas, dated by the Artizon Museum in Tokyo to 1910, the last year of the painter’s life. The original is published as 46 cm high and 55.3 cm wide, under inventory number gy042. What you see: a green meadow with two brown, horned cattle, a small herder in a red cap, a row of tall, narrow trees and a great round tree under a clear, pale sky.
Meadowland
What is on the canvas?
The canvas is a little wider than it is high. A pale blue sky, lighter towards the horizon, fills the upper half. At the left five tall, narrow trees stand in a row above a band of dense green bushes; their leaves are painted in small, separate strokes that turn golden where the light falls. Right of centre stands a great round tree with pale grey-green leaves and a short dark trunk, and more bushes close the view at the far right. A pale pinkish band runs across the middle distance behind the animals. On the even green lawn at the left stand two brown cattle with curved horns, both facing left. Beside the hindquarters of the larger one stands a small figure in a red cap, a blue jacket and yellowish trousers, one hand on the animal. The signature, H. Rousseau, is at the lower right.
Is it called Meadowland or The Pasture?
The museum’s own page names the painting Meadowland, and that is the title we use. The published catalogue data (Wikidata) also give The Pasture as a second title for the same canvas. Both describe what is painted: grazing land with cattle on it. We add no French title, because none of the sources we could read gives one. Another quiet scene on the edge of a town is Environs de Paris.
Where is the original, and why is there no link to it?
The painting belongs to the Artizon Museum in Tokyo. We read the museum’s own page for it in a copy archived in 2022: it gives the title, the year 1910 and the technique, oil on canvas. That page’s address no longer opens on the museum’s website: it answers that the page does not exist, exactly as the same address with an invented number does, so today it identifies nothing. We therefore link nowhere, rather than give a link that leads nowhere. The size and the inventory number gy042 come from the Wikidata entry, which ties them to the Artizon Museum, and we give them as published. Another park with tall trees is Jardin du Luxembourg.
How large is the original, and what does that mean on a wall?
The published dimensions of the original are 46 cm high and 55.3 cm wide. Eight sizes are available: 50 x 40, 55 x 46, 70 x 60, 80 x 70, 90 x 75, 110 x 90, 130 x 110 and 150 x 130 cm. The 55 x 46 cm size corresponds to those published dimensions; because we could not check them on a working museum page, we give that as a match with the published figures, not as our own measurement. The larger sizes give the cattle and the herder more presence: on the original the figure is less than ten centimetres tall. Custom sizes are ordered through the made-to-order painting page. Another open landscape under a wide sky is View of the Bridge at Sèvres.
How is a hand-painted reproduction made?
We paint your canvas painting by hand in oils after you order it, at the size you choose. From a high-resolution image of the original, the painter lays in the sky first, then the trees, one small stroke of leaf at a time, and the meadow as an even field of green, adding the cattle and the herder last so that their outlines stay clear. A hand-painted canvas always differs slightly from the next, and that difference is exactly what a print cannot give you. It is stretched on a wooden frame, ready to hang. Another outdoor group, a family lined up in front of a house, is The Family, and the whole collection is in the Henri Rousseau gallery.
Frequently asked questions
Where is the original kept?
At the Artizon Museum in Tokyo, inventory number gy042, as published; the museum’s page for it no longer opens, so we do not link it.
When was it painted?
In 1910, the year the museum’s own page gives, and the last year of Rousseau’s life.
Who is the figure with the cattle?
An unnamed herder in a red cap, standing with one hand on the larger animal. Nothing we could read names the figure or the place.
Is this a print?
No. It is painted by hand in oils, and the layers of paint can be seen and felt.
Is the painting suitable as a gift?
Yes, especially for someone who loves the countryside: the scene is calm and green. If you would rather the recipient chose, there is a gift voucher.
- Subject: a green meadow with two brown cattle, a small herder in a red cap, tall narrow trees and a great round tree.
- Original: oil on canvas, 46 x 55.3 cm (height x width, as published), Artizon Museum, Tokyo, inv. gy042; 1910.
- Our version: hand-painted oil, eight sizes from 50 x 40 to 150 x 130 cm, or a size made to order.
- Of note: the museum’s page for this painting no longer opens, so this page names the museum and the inventory as published and carries no link.
