Additional Images

Provenance:

Galerie George Petit, Paris, France
Koster Private Collection, Paris, France
Waddington's Auctioneers, Toronto, ON, 9 Jun 1995, lot 01788
Private Collection, Ontario
Sotheby's, New York, NY, 1 Nov 1995, lot 58
Private Collection, Ontario

Literature:

Paul Ruffié, Henri Rousseau. Le dernier orientaliste, Ed. Privat, Toulouse, 2015, 207, illustrated.

Note:

In the most recent catalogue raisonné of Henri Émilien Rousseau paintings [1], Paul Ruffié explains the impact of the artist’s move to the South of France and Orientalism on his oeuvre.

When Henri Rousseau relocated to Aix-en-Provence in 1919, the artist strategically and stylistically positioned himself halfway between Paris and North Africa. The balance between the fertile art market of Paris and the geographically diminishing barrier of the Mediterranean led to Rousseau’s new found joy in painting - allowing the artist to concentrate on the subtleties of his subjects.

Distancing himself stylistically from the detached, classical portraiture and landscapes of his early career, Rousseau’s physical proximity to the region allowed him to explore the plethora of customs, beliefs, and traditions of North Africa. Applying his growing knowledge of the region, inherited from France’s centuries-long colonization of North Africa, Rousseau adopted an air of familiarity to his paintings creating an almost oxymoronic yet organic sense of calm dynamism. With the exception of his depiction of a few military patrols, stark frontality is often absent from his compositions, with the artist preferring to follow the panoramic motion of the scene and its forms.

Rousseau’s novel connection to North Africa is echoed in the painter's manipulation of the canvas. His notedly spontaneous brushstrokes, now eschew, read more assertively as light emanates from each swatch of paint. His brushes and pallet knives act decisively, contrasting textures, and leaving a few spots of pure pigment that illuminate areas of divergence. Rousseau’s virtuous and highly unique style thus emerges from this era.

[1] Paul Ruffié, Henri Rousseau. Le dernier orientaliste, Ed. Privat, Toulouse, 2015, 86.