Rousseau Henri

Rousseau served in the army before securing a position as a clerk in a Paris tollhouse in 1871. It was here he earned the semi-mocking nickname ‘Le Douanier’ (the customs officer) from the poet Alfred Jarry. A self-taught artist, he began painting regularly in 1884 and exhibited in the newly established Salon des Indépendants, but could only pursue painting full-time on his retirement in 1893. He continued working in the Naïve style he had developed early in his career, and never lost the charm of a ‘Sunday painter’ – a description he steadfastly refuted. Known as a ‘modern primitive’, his dream-like paintings foreshadowed some of the major artistic movements of the twentieth century, including Surrealism.