Rousseau (French)

Henri Rousseau claimed he had “no teacher other than nature.” A retired customs official who only began painting in his late 40s, his simple, bold paintings of exotic flora and fauna attracted public derision at first, but went on to gain adulation from Picasso, the Surrealists, and long beyond. This dependable introduction explores the makings of this late-blooming artist and his legacy as an unlikely hero of modernism.