Henri Rousseau

Went to the Henri Rousseau exhibition at Tate Modern last night. Huge canvases depicting Rousseau's jungle visions. Rousseau never experienced real jungles, but was a regular visitor to Paris's Natural History Museum, Jardin des Plantes, zoo and botanical gardens. It was the stuffed animals in the museum and exotic foliage inside the glass houses that provided him with his inspiration. I love the fact that Rousseau's sources of reference were collections gathered from all over the world, monkeys from Africa, birds of paradise from New Guinea, gibbons and parrots from South America. These references were all jumbled together to produce dreamlike scenes of imagined jungles, hence 'Jungles in Paris', the title of the exhibition.

Another good example of bold, vibrant colours drawing you in, at which point other, unexpected details then reveal themselves.


Well worth a visit!

Dickie

p.s. Good to see you Sonia. Hope you got home ok