HENRI ROUSSEAU BORN IN LAVAL, FRANCE IN 1844

HE WORKED AS A TAX COLLECTOR UNTIL HIS MID 40’S

AT 49, HE DECIDED TO DEDICATE HIS TIME TO PAINTING

HE WAS A SELF TAUGHT PAINTER

HE IS BEST KNOWN FOR JUNGLE SCENES ALTHOUGH HE NEVER VISITED THE JUNGLE

OBTAINED HIS INSPIRATION FROM BOTANICAL GARDENS IN PARIS, THE ZOO AND FROM BOOKS

WHEN HE PAINTED PLANTS HE WOULD MAKE THEM AS BIG AS TREES, NOT THEIR ACTUAL SIZE, GIVING THE IMPRESSION OF A FANTASY WORLD

ROUSSEAU WAS RIDICULED BY ART CRITICS DURING HIS LIFE. THEY DID NOT CONSIDER HIM A SERIOUS ARTIST

HE ALWAYS WANTED TO BE KNOWN AS A GREAT ARTIST, BUT HE DIED IN 1910 AT THE AGE OF 66 WITHOUT SEEING THIS

ABOUT ONE YEAR AFTER HIS DEATH, HIS PAINTINGS BEGAN TO SELL

Henri Rousseau

Surprised! Storm in the ForestHenri Rousseau

Rousseau was fascinated with far-off jungles filled with strange beauty and terror. This interest is portrayed in this painting. He pays careful attention to detail in each leaf and tree branch even as they sway rhythmically in the fury of the storm. As is common in Rousseau’s jungle pictures, the tiger appears from behind the leaves. The tiger’s movement and expression add to the stormy feeling. The details ar very real and help create the dream like feeling of the painting.

This painting is rich with patterns created by moving leaves, tree branches and falling rain. There are contrasts of darks and lights as well as warm reds, yellows and oranges against deep brown and dark greens.

Two Monkeys in the Jungle, 1909

Exotic Landscape, 1908

Questions Ideas for interactive class discussion:

When you look at the painting, what colors do you see?

Do you see some cool or dark colors? Which ones are they? How do these colors make you feel when you see them in this painting?

Do you see warm colors? Which ones are they?

What is happening in the painting? (if they answer stormy, follow up with “What indicates that?” and they should be able to talk about the wind, gray skies, lightning, etc)

Where is the painting taking place?

What animals do you see?

What are they doing?

What would you name this painting? (Many times I don’t tell the name of the painting until after the question and answer session…they come up with great names!)

If you were there, what sounds do you think you would hear in this picture?

Media: Collage

This project can be done with the younger classes, Pre-K and K-1, as it requires for them to organize items on the cardstock in the same manner as the Painting they just studied.

Prep Work:

Find tigers or lions, preferably in a crouching position, on the internet by googling “images crouching tigers” or “images lions”. Print and cut.

For branches, trunks I have used popsicle sticks painted brown, pipe cleaners or branches from outside.

Buy fake leaves at an art supply store, but be sure to peel of the little sticks on the back , otherwise they won’t glue easily.

Instructions during Class Project for Younger student grades:

1. Use any card stock you want, but I recommend a dark gray color so that the “storm” effect is captured.

2. Provide the child with the material in stages. 3. Start by having them draw green tall grass with different shades of green on half the paper. I

used Crayola Oil Pastels.4. Then give them white and light grey to lightly draw the driving rain in diagonal fashion and

the lightening. Again I used Oil Pastels.5. Then give them the tiger/lion, followed by the tall grass, leaves and tree trunk material. Use

regular Elmer’s glue, but be prepared to fix it a bit after the fact.

Other Project Ideas for higher grade levels can be found at: www.incredibleart.org.

Once on the web page, go to: FREE LESSON PLANS, pick an age group.

Then scroll down on left side to: LESSON IDEA PAGES

Then find Henri Rousseau in the box in the middle of the page.