{
"data": {
"id": 111470,
"accession_number": "1929.951",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Outskirts of Paris, c. 1897\u20131905. Henri Rousseau (French, 1844\u20131910). Oil on fabric; framed: 56.5 x 65.5 x 8 cm (22 1/4 x 25 13/16 x 3 1/8 in.); unframed: 37.8 x 45.8 cm (14 7/8 x 18 1/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1929.951",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Outskirts of Paris",
"creation_date": "c. 1897\u20131905",
"creation_date_earliest": 1897,
"creation_date_latest": 1905,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"France, late 19th Century-early 20th Century"
],
"technique": "oil on fabric",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Modern European Painting and Sculpture",
"collection": "Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960",
"type": "Painting",
"measurements": "Framed: 56.5 x 65.5 x 8 cm (22 1/4 x 25 13/16 x 3 1/8 in.); Unframed: 37.8 x 45.8 cm (14 7/8 x 18 1/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"framed": {
"height": 0.565,
"width": 0.655,
"depth": 0.08
},
"unframed": {
"height": 0.378,
"width": 0.458
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "Signed lower right: Henri Rousseau\r\n",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 312517,
"title": "The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition",
"description": "The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).",
"opening_date": "1936-06-26T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 312176,
"title": "19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans",
"description": "19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 22-September 1, 1943).",
"opening_date": "1943-06-22T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 355645,
"title": "Primitive Art and Folk Art",
"description": "Primitive Art and Folk Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 15-May 15, 1951).",
"opening_date": "1951-03-15T05:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": [
{
"description": "Paris, Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 des Artistes Ind\u00e9pendants. 27\u00e8me Exposition (1911), probably no. 7, La Seine \u00e0 Meudon (according to handwriting on stretcher the work was in this exhibition).",
"opening_date": "1911-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "French Art since Eighteen Hundred (1929), in CMA Bulletin 16 (1929): 166 (repr.), 169.",
"opening_date": "1929-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Catalogue of the Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition of the Cleveland Museum of Art (1936), no. 342, Environs de Paris.",
"opening_date": "1936-01-01T00:00:00"
},
{
"description": "Henri Rousseau. Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Boston, Institute of Modern Art, Boston, MA; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA; Art Gallery of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario; Modern Art Society, Cincinnati, OH; City Art Museum of St. Louis, St. Louis, MO; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, NH. (1942-43), 35 (repr.)",
"opening_date": "1942-01-01T00:00:00"
}
]
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Henri Rousseau",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": null,
"sortorder": null
},
{
"description": "M. Lef\u00e8bvre, Paris. His collection sale, Paris, Drouot, 3 March 1927 (lot 117, repr.), Paysage de banlieue, for ff 55,000, sold to \u00c9mile Level.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1927",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "\u00c9mile Level, Paris, France, consigned to Valentine Gallery, New York, NY",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1927-1929",
"sortorder": 3
},
{
"description": "Valentine Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art on December 16, 1929.",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1929",
"sortorder": 4
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1929-",
"sortorder": 5
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Rousseau once said to Picasso: \"We are the two greatest artists of this era, you in the Egyptian style, I in the modern style.\"",
"description": "In addition to his large jungle scenes, Rousseau also painted small landscapes, including this view of a river or canal on the outskirts of Paris. While retaining a sharp, detailed rendering of objects, Rousseau has abandoned the flat tonality of his earlier works for more blended modeling and freer brushwork. The volumes of the clouds, trees, and houses occupy distinct areas in space, revealing the serenity of an organized world. A self-taught painter who, at the age of 41, quit his job in the Paris municipal toll or tax service to devote himself entirely to art, Rousseau was widely admired by avant-garde artists for his intuitive sense of design and inventive subjects.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60513324"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1929.951-outskirts-of-paris"
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},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Basler, Adolphe. Henri Rousseau, Sa vie-son Oeuvre. New York, NY: Wehye, 1927.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: pl. 19",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "\"A Painting by 'Papa' Rousseau.\" The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 17, no.1 (January 1930): 8-10.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 2; Mentioned: p. 8-9",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25137267"
},
{
"citation": "Wilenski, R. H. Modern French Painters. New York, NY: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1940.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 362",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Rich, Daniel Catton. Henri Rousseau. New York,NY: The Museum of Modern Art, 1942.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 35",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Grey, Roch. Henri Rousseu. Paris, France: Galerie Rene\u0301 Drouin, E\u0301ditions \"Tel\", 1943.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: pl. 59",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bouret, Jean. Henri Rousseau. London, United Kingdom: Oldbourne Press, 1961.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 201, no. 112",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Vallier, Dora. L'opera completa di Rousseau il Doganiere. Milano, Italy: Rizzoli, 1969.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 83",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Vallier, Dora. Tout l'\u0153uvre peint de Henri Rousseau. Paris, France: Flammarion, 1970.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 83",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Bihalji-Merin, Lise, and Oto Bihalji-Merin. Leben und Werk des Malers Henri Rousseau. Dresden, Germany: Verlag der Kunst, VEB, 1973.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: pl. 5",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Le Pichon, Yann, and Joachim Neugroschel. The world of Henri Rousseau. New York, NY: Viking Press, 1982.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Vallier, Dora. Henri Rousseau. Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1982.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Certigny, Henry. Le Douanier Rousseau en son temps: biographie et catalogue raisonne\u0301. Tokyo, Japan: Bunkazai Kenkyujyo Co, 1984.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Certigny, Henry. Le Douanier Rousseau en son temps: biographie et catalogue raisonne\u0301. Tokyo, Japan: Bunkazai Kenkyujyo Co, 1984.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 268-269",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Shattuck, Roger. Henri Rousseau: Essays. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art, 1985.",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Richardson, John, and Marilyn McCully. A Life of Picasso. New York, NY: Random House, 1990.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 113, vol. 2",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "D'Argencourt, Louise and Roger Diederen. The Cleveland Museum of Art: Catalogue of Paintings, Part Four; European Paintings of the 19th Century. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1999.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 195",
"url": null
}
],
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"creditline": "Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund",
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"athena_id": 111470,
"creators": [
{
"id": 1804,
"description": "Henri Rousseau (French, 1844\u20131910)",
"extent": null,
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"role": "artist",
"biography": "Self-taught artist Henri Rousseau was born in Laval in 1844. He entered the military at the age of eighteen and served as a saxophone player in an infantry band. Most biographers discount his claim of traveling abroad during the Mexican campaign. In 1871 Rousseau left the military to join the customs service, where he spent fourteen years working on the outskirts of Paris as a minor inspector. After retiring with a small pension in 1885, he pursued the career of a painter and sought portrait commissions. From 1886 to 1910, he exhibited on a regular basis at the Salon des Ind\u00e9pendants, and after 1905, at the Salon d'Automne. Through these activities he became friendly with other artists, including Gauguin (q.v.), Pissarro (q.v.), Seurat (q.v), Paul Signac (1863-1935), and Redon (q.v.) who affectionately called him \"le douanier\" (customs officer). Rousseau's paintings were poorly received, and frequently ridiculed in the press, until he attracted a small group of admirers in the early years of this century. This group included Pablo Picasso, Maurice de Vlaminck, Robert Delaunay, Max Weber, and Ardengo Soffici, along with the writers Alfred Jarry, Max Jacob, Andr\u00e9 Salmon, and Guillaume Apollinaire. In 1908, a famous banquet honoring Rousseau was organized at Picasso's studio. Avant-garde artists admired Rousseau's direct, simple vision and his innate talent at clear, pictorial design. However, he aspired to paint in the academic manner of G\u00e9r\u00f4me (q.v.) and Bouguereau (q.v.). Rousseau reportedly told Picasso: \"We are the two greatest artists of this era-you in the Egyptian style, I in the modern style.\"1 Despite growing acclaim in his late years, Rousseau struggled for sales and was forced to supplement his meager income by giving private painting and violin lessons. He occasionally sold works through the dealers Ambroise Vollard and Wilhelm Uhde. In 1909 Rousseau was convicted of complicity in a bank fraud, but authorities suspended the sentence because of his age and apparent failure to comprehend his role in the crime. Rousseau died in Paris of pneumonia in 1910. In 1911 Uhde organized a retrospective at the Ind\u00e9pendants and published the first biography of Rousseau.",
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1844",
"death_year": "1910",
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"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1929-11-04T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1897,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "c. 1897\u20131905",
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"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-03-27 00:00:32.972000"
}
}