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Lesson Plans—Works of Art
Object Descriptions and Suggested Discussion Questions

Henri Rousseau (1844–1910) View of Quay d’Ivry near the Port à l’Anglais, Seine (Family Fishing), 1900 Oil on canvas The Baltimore Museum of Art: The Cone Collection, formed by Dr. Claribel Cone and Miss Etta Cone of Baltimore, Maryland BMA 1950.294

Henri Rousseau’s style was different from the other creators of modern art who worked in Paris in the early 1900s, but his work was admired by geniuses such as Picasso. Rousseau began to paint only in his 40s. Until the age of 49, he worked as a low-level employee of the customs office of Paris. In French his admirers referred to him as the Douanier Rousseau, which means “Rousseau the Customs Man.”

A look at any painting by Rousseau reveals his use of a simple style that recalls childlike drawing. Rousseau taught himself to paint and did not master the technical skills employed by painters since the Renaissance to render perspective and volume. The first Rousseau pictures many Parisians had seen were exhibited at the 1886 Salon des Independents, a show by artists who flaunted the conventional rules of art. Even there, the common reaction was laughter. Visitors went out of their way to point out the naive appearance of the work of this artist who seemed unable to paint in a professional manner. It did not help that Rousseau, with his bushy beard, delivered his paintings to the exhibition in a wheelbarrow. Only a few artists, including some of the impressionists, recognized the value of Rousseau’s compositions.

Best known for his fantastic visions of jungle scenes based on his imagination and trips to the zoo, Rousseau also had an ability to capture the charm of everyday scenes he observed in suburban contemporary Paris in paintings like View of the Quay d’Ivry near the Port à l’Anglais, Seine (Family Fishing). About 1900 Rousseau began to paint small landscapes from scenes he observed, such as this scene of a family fishing on the Seine on the outskirts of Paris. Like many artists who possess talent without formal training, Rousseau utilized patterns of simplified shapes to create interesting compositions. When Rousseau painted houses, they became flat blocks of paint with few details beyond roofs attached at an angle and windows reduced to patterns of black rectangles. He forms the figures of the fishing child, mother and baby in a carriage from simplified rounded shapes. In his own way, Rousseau was contributing to the modernization of art along with artists like Picasso and Matisse. All three simplified form, leaving out realistic details to emphasize fundamental shapes or to suggest essential characteristics of personality. Picasso and Matisse worked in the most sophisticated styles of their day, while Rousseau pursued his visions with the style of a “Sunday painter,” who simply looks and draws without worrying about how to do it correctly.

Suggested Discussion Questions

• Where do you find patterns of repeated shapes or colors in Rousseau’s painting? What details would you expect to see in a more realistic image that Rousseau left out to simplify his shapes? Compare Matisse’s painting Seated Odalisque or Purple Robe and Anemones from the exhibition. How are his uses of patterns different?
• How does Rousseau’s scene compare to how you imagine Paris? List the things in or about Paris that you think are most widely known. How important are painting, sculpture or architecture in the popular image of Paris?
• Imagine who these people might be. As a class, outline a brief story about them that this painting could illustrate. Include the characters’ names, their personalities and descriptions. Describe the setting. Create a situation that adds drama to the scene, and complete your story with an unexpected ending.