id: 111470 accession number: 1929.951 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1929.951 updated: 2024-03-26 01:57:15.601000 Outskirts of Paris, c. 1897–1905. Henri Rousseau (French, 1844–1910). 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 title: Outskirts of Paris title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1897–1905 creation date earliest: 1897 creation date latest: 1905 current location: creditline: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund copyright: --- culture: France, late 19th Century-early 20th Century technique: oil on fabric department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Henri Rousseau (French, 1844–1910) - artist 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 Indépendants, 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, André 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 Gérôme (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 Indépendants and published the first biography of Rousseau. --- 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.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: Signed lower right: Henri Rousseau translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition opening date: 1936-06-26T04:00:00 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). title: 19th and 20th Century French Art and Leonard C. Hanna, Jr. Loans opening date: 1943-06-22T04:00:00 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). title: Primitive Art and Folk Art opening date: 1951-03-15T05:00:00 Primitive Art and Folk Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (March 15-May 15, 1951). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * {'description': 'Paris, Société des Artistes Indépendants. 27ème Exposition (1911), probably no. 7, La Seine à 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 Henri Rousseau date: footnotes: citations: M. Lefèbvre, Paris. His collection sale, Paris, Drouot, 3 March 1927 (lot 117, repr.), Paysage de banlieue, for ff 55,000, sold to Émile Level. date: 1927 footnotes: citations: Émile Level, Paris, France, consigned to Valentine Gallery, New York, NY date: 1927-1929 footnotes: citations: Valentine Gallery, New York, NY, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art on December 16, 1929. date: 1929 footnotes: citations: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH date: 1929- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Basler, Adolphe. Henri Rousseau, Sa vie-son Oeuvre. New York, NY: Wehye, 1927. page number: Reproduced: pl. 19 url: "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 Wilenski, R. H. Modern French Painters. New York, NY: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1940. page number: Reproduced: p. 362 url: Rich, Daniel Catton. Henri Rousseau. New York,NY: The Museum of Modern Art, 1942. page number: Reproduced: p. 35 url: Grey, Roch. Henri Rousseu. Paris, France: Galerie René Drouin, Éditions "Tel", 1943. page number: Reproduced: pl. 59 url: Bouret, Jean. Henri Rousseau. London, United Kingdom: Oldbourne Press, 1961. page number: Reproduced: p. 201, no. 112 url: Vallier, Dora. L'opera completa di Rousseau il Doganiere. Milano, Italy: Rizzoli, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 83 url: Vallier, Dora. Tout l'œuvre peint de Henri Rousseau. Paris, France: Flammarion, 1970. page number: Reproduced: p. 83 url: 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: Le Pichon, Yann, and Joachim Neugroschel. The world of Henri Rousseau. New York, NY: Viking Press, 1982. page number: url: Vallier, Dora. Henri Rousseau. Norwalk, CT: Easton Press, 1982. page number: url: Certigny, Henry. Le Douanier Rousseau en son temps: biographie et catalogue raisonné. Tokyo, Japan: Bunkazai Kenkyujyo Co, 1984. page number: url: Certigny, Henry. Le Douanier Rousseau en son temps: biographie et catalogue raisonné. Tokyo, Japan: Bunkazai Kenkyujyo Co, 1984. page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 268-269 url: Shattuck, Roger. Henri Rousseau: Essays. New York, NY: Museum of Modern Art, 1985. page number: url: Richardson, John, and Marilyn McCully. A Life of Picasso. New York, NY: Random House, 1990. page number: Mentioned: p. 113, vol. 2 url: 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: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1929.951/1929.951_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1929.951/1929.951_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1929.951/1929.951_full.tif