Hardcover Book: Henri Rousseau - Portrait of a Primitive

Description: Coffee-table type hardcover book - Henri Rousseau: Portrait of a Primitive. 83 pages with text and 68 illustrations, 27 in color. From the inner-leaf of the dust jacket: Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) is a strange figure in French twentieth-century art. He pursued his own simple, untutored course throughout all the years when his contemporaries were experimenting with new styles and movements. Rousseau's simplicity and naivety were notorious and, always gullible, he often found himself the victim of practical jokers. But his own confidence in himself as an artist never wavered, even if others found it difficult to take him seriously. In some ways his paintings are very sophisticated, the design and colors worked out in rare and intricate detail. Their appeal lies at once in their directness and their depth. These paintings, at first the spare-time occupation of a minor government official (Rousseau was, in fact, a toll-collector in Paris - hence his rather misleading nickname "Le Douanier"), are often poetic evocations of exotic lands, where lions and tigers lurk among luxuriant undergrowth. Perspective and scale have little place in his work, but it was probably the extraordinary realism that he could achieve while ignoring visual conventions that appealed so much to Picasso and his circle and brought Rousseau to wider notice as the first of the so-called "modern primitives" or "naive painters". Ronald Alley, Keeper of the Modern Collection at the Tate Gallery, London, England, describes the life and work of this unworldly but endearing artist. The book is beautifully illustrated with full-color reproductions of Rousseau's rich, sensuous, and strongly-colored visions. Please note that this book is approximately 46 years old and although in like new condition, it does show some slight signs of age, such as some slight yellowing on the blank page after the front cover and the blank page before the back cover. There is also a slight crease-like imperfection on the inner fold of the dust jacket, but looking at the other side reveals it is not a crease but rather a manufacturing defect.

Price: 10.95 USD

Location: Pittsfield, Massachusetts

End Time: 2024-04-14T20:29:37.000Z

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