Art AwarenessFirst grade Lesson 4 – Henri Rousseau

Post Impressionist in Native Manner

Self Portrait May 21, 1844- Sept 2, 1910

Native or

Primitive style

• From France• He was an average

student but won prizes for drawing and music in school

• He studied law for 4 years

• He joined the army• He had 9 children • He didn’t start

painting until his early 40’s and retired from his job at 49 to work on art

His most famous of the Jungle Series is seen on the right.This is titled Surprised (Tropical Storm with a Tiger) 1891

His resources were picture books and visits to Paris zoo and botanical gardens.

He is quoted as saying he had “no teacher other than nature”

He made objects appear like they were in the distance by overlapping the images such as plant leaves

He also changed the sizes of the objects to create perspective by making objects in the front appear larger than objects in the back

Perspective- the appearance to the eye of objects in respect to their distance and positions related to other objects in a painting

Exotic Landscape

Waterfall 1910 can be seen at Chicago’s Art Institute

http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/education/kids/kids-jungle.html

We are going to create our own Rousseau inspired image using the National Gallery of Art website above.

You will be able to layer the plants, flowers and animals to work on perspective

You will be able to change the background to sunny days, nights or tropical storms

You will be allowed to print ONE color copy of your creation!

Be inspired!!