Le Douanier Rousseau (1844-1910) was a self-taught French painter who had an important influence on art at the end of the 19th century and became the acknowledged master of a style known as naïve or primitive painting. His real name was Henri Rousseau. He was patronizingly called “Le Douanier” (French for customs-house officer) because he worked for some years in a Paris toll-house, and the nick name stuck because it helped to distinguish him from Theodore Rousseau (1812-67), leader of a group of landscape painters.
After a spell in the army, the younger Rousseau spent about a quarter of a century as a minor civil servant. About 1880 he began to paint in his spare time. In 1886 he exhibited for the first time at the Salon des Independents in Paris, but the naivety of his work aroused derisionand he did not decide to paint professionally until his retirement in 1893. Gradually the strength and originality of his pictures gained recognition. He was introduced to Paul Signac, a neo-impressionist painter, and through him met the artists Gauguin, Pissarro and Seurat. Among the painters who most admired his style were Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec. The young Picasso, who used to visit him in his rooms, gave a banquet in his honour in 1908.
Le Douanier continued to exhibit at the Salon des independents until the year of his death. He longed to be able to paint in the academic way, but brought a splendid quality of directness, simplicity and sensibility to his work. Among the most remarkable of his paintings are jungle scenes.
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