1. Tiger in a Tropical Storm (Surprised!) Henri Rousseau, 1891
Take a Picture ….
Rosmond Milner

2. First impressions count
describe the painting in ONE word

3. Look for clues in the picture
Subject
Style
Composition
Colour
Mood

4. Looking at pictures: visual literacy
Subject
Is it formal, informal, a portrait, a landscape, a still-life, heroic, exotic, fantastic, ordinary/everyday?

5. Looking at pictures: visual literacy
Style
Is it naïve, childlike, primitive, stylised, bold, simplified, modern, classical?

6. Looking at pictures: visual literacy
Composition
Think about perspective, depth of view, pattern, diagonal lines, movement, rhythm, orientation (portrait or landscape format)?

7. Looking at pictures: visual literacy
Colour
Are the colours bright, warm, hot, strong, bold, complementary colours (red/green, purple/yellow, blue/orange); are there strong tonal contrasts?

8. Looking at pictures: visual literacy
Mood
Is the picture atmospheric, stormy, windy, light and dark, scary, exciting, electric, dramatic?

9. What can’t we see?

10. What can’t we see in a reproduction?
Size
Texture > brush marks, thickness of paint
Support > canvas, wood, paper
If the colour reproduction is accurate
The size of the painting is cm x cm (4’3” x 5’3”)

11. Visit these websites to find answers for the quiz about the painting:
Art detectives
Visit these websites to find answers for the quiz about the painting:
The National Gallery.Click on Search then scroll down the page to Search the Collection. Type in Rousseau
Mark Harden’s database of artists.Click on the Mona Lisa to enter the site and on H Rousseau in the index on the left. View the Image List
The Web Museum, Paris

12. Art detectives What was the painting first called? When was it made?
Where can it be seen now?
In what way was the painting a first for Rousseau?
Which jungle inspired the painting?
Surprise!
1891
The National Gallery, London
It was his first jungle painting
None – Rousseau claimed he served with the army in Mexico, but it was probably inspired by visits to the botanical gardens and zoo in Paris and by illustrated books

13. 6. When was Rousseau born and when did he die?
7. What was his nickname and why?
8. Name one of his other famous paintings?
9. Why is Rousseau known as a naïve artist?
10. Which twentieth century art movement was influenced by his style of painting after his death?
– 1910
7. Le Douanier or Douanier Rousseau because he had been a low-ranking Customs Officer before he retired
8. The Dream, The Sleeping Gypsy, The Football Players
9. Because he was formally untrained and painted in a childlike or “primitive” way
10. Surrealism

14. Henri Rousseau, Le Douanier

15. Rousseau’s times Art movements Artists Self-portrait, Prague 1890
Impressionism
Post Impressionism
Fauvism
Cubism
Artists
Picasso
Cézanne
Gaugin
Monet
Léger
Dufy
Self-portrait, Prague 1890

16. Portrait of the poet Apollinaire
Fact file on Rousseau
He took 3 months to finish a painting working 7 days a week
He painted slowly from the top to the bottom of the canvas, filling in just one colour at a time
Portrait of the poet Apollinaire

17. Fact file on Rousseau
There are over 50 shades of green in a jungle painting
He gave violin & painting lessons and was a street musician to eke out a living
He died in poverty and had a pauper’s grave at first

18. Rousseau’s grave now has an epitaph by Apollinaire
Gentle Rousseau you can hear us We salute you Delaunay, his wife, Monsieur Queval and I Let our luggage through the gate of heaven duty-free We’ll bring you paintbrushes, colours, canvasses So that your heavenly leisure time in the real light Is devoted to painting as when you did my portrait The face of the stars
Guillaume Apollinaire
translated RKM

19. Famous quotes 1 “ You know, I could have finished all these pictures”
about Cézanne, 1907

20. Famous quotes 2
“ We are the two greatest painters of this era: you in the Egyptian style and I in the modern style”
about Picasso, 1908