▼Copyright : The legal right of the creator to his or her work.

▼Scope : Extensive range of arts architectural design computer programs images fonts articles etc.

All works of art have the right to protect against imitation and abusement without the permission of others namely copyrights. On the other hand there is an expiration period for copyright until 70 years after the writers death. From then it is possible to share the works left by the writers. Which is so-called as “COPYLEFT”. In the series article  we will take time to look over the expired copyright artists who left enormous masterpiece when they were alive and returned as a picture for the peoples.

Name : Henri Rousseau

Birth : May 21 1844

Died : September 2 1910

Nationality : France

Art Movement : Post-Impressionism Primitivism


Main Paintings : ‘The Sleeping Gypsy’ ‘Scout Attacked by a Tiger’ ‘The Snake Charmer’

Including field of Fine Arts and Athletics such as dance song and arts there exist a academies even in the field of examination such as K-SAT public servant test and certificate. It is a world where one can achieve ones goal in a short time through academies. If so is it really impossible to become a singer without academies and pass the test? Today in introduces Henri Rousseau a Sunday painter who became a painter at the late age of 49 without an academy education but was recognized by Picasso.

Henri Rousseau was born as the son of a plumber in Laval Mayenne France. After dropping out of high school due to poor family circumstances he moved to Angers and started working at a law firm.

He spent a young age nothing to do with art however he was able to play the clarinet a little and at the age of 20 he volunteered to join the army band and worked as a clarinet player.


Strangely enough he enlisted in the army with music but it wasnt until after his military service that he became interested in art. However in his fifth year in the army when his father passed away and Henri became the only one to support his family he was ordered to be discharged from the army. After his discharge from the army he moved to Paris with his mother and became a customs officer in the city of Paris. It was sequence of work related to civil service from military personnel who defended the country to customs officer who collects the tax of the city.

However his interest in art which started from the military became stronger after he became a customs officer. Henri couldnt draw on weekdays because of his work as a customs officer so he had to draw only on weekends. Henri who continued his passionate study of painting exhibited his paintings every Sunday but this pattern earned him the nickname of Sunday Painter through people.


He studied on his own without having a proper art education. Among the practices that amateur painters often practiced he fulfilled his artistic abilities by copying postcards and copying works at the Louvre. Unfortunately while color and drawing techniques were learned no techniques of perspective or composition were learned. Of course not being able to receive art education was not a poison but rather a benefit to Rousseau.

Later on with the appearance of surrealist painters this techniques were called as the France language Dépayment meaning Transposition and explained Rousseaus paintings. At that time however it was too awkward and unintelligible to understand because it was not a common subject or perspective. Those who saw Henris paintings without knowing who painted those sometimes referred to his painting as Explorers drawing instead of Painters drawing.


If you look at the paintings of 1895 the ‘Boy On The Rocks’ and ‘The Football Players you will know the Henrys paintings worldview. There is a child who doesnt look like a boy sitting on a rocky mountain but it is generally impossible. The boy who is suppose to be sitting on a small chair or floor is sitting on the rock and also the perspective is nonsense. If you see the The Football Players the prisoners are almost touching the ball with their hands. It casts doubt on changing the title as The Prisoner playing Rugby.

Nevertheless Henris passion grew even higher. He started applying exhibitions in Paris from 1885 but has exhibited two paintings at the Salon de Champs-Élysées and steadily exhibited at the Ande Pandan exhibition and the Salon de Ton since 1886. The paintings painted at that time are regarded as todays masterpieces. However at that time since he studied on his own he was the subject of ridicule and criticism in the beginning because of his awkward body proportionality and difficulty in distinguishing between reality and fantasy.


‘The Sleeping Gypsy’ exhibited at the 1897 ‘Ande Pandan Exhibition’ was the representative painting. If you look at the picture there is a full moon hanging in the deep blue night sky. Above the dessert there is a woman sleeping with grasping cane and instrument called mandolin is next to it. Behind there is a male lion passing through with its tails up smelling the scent. It is a painting that conveys atmosphere of a desert covered with serene tension.

There are obvious factors of the possibility of criticism such as the sense of perspective between lions and women being somewhat unnatural. However if you think it is a dreaming of a woman you can understand this composition. The lion are also believed to be in different space-time where it cannot meet the women.


Art&Culture]Since then such unfamiliar and awkward paintings with high possibility of various interpretation have started to appear one after another. From this point on Henris paintings began to show the color of primitivism as the main representative paintings there are ‘Scout Attacked by a Tiger’ and ‘The Snake Charmer’ in 1903.

There is one figure who often appears when discussing the primitivism. It is Paul Gauguin. In order to depict primitivism he made an effort to paint actual experiences such as traveling to Tahiti. However neither of Henris two works mentioned above was not drawn by Henris direct experience. These primitivism paintings are drawn by imagination based on vivid stories inspired by botanical gardens and zoos near the Seine river in Paris or heard from acquaintances.


No teacher other than nature.- Henri Rousseau

Just as a movie director who has never been to space becomes a science fiction master it is not impossible for a painter who has not been to Africa to paint primitive pictures. That is because human imagination is so wonderful. Henri believed that naive pictures drawn based on self-study the surrounding natural environment and his imagination could be felt refreshing to somebodies. His ideas greatly influenced Picasso master of Cubism.


Picasso was 27 in 1908 when he turned 64. Although he was much younger than Rousseau he had a high opinion of his artworks. Previously there was a tendency to regard Rousseau as an amateur painter. Picasso bought Rousseaus works one by one expressed his love and invited Rousseau to the festival by gathering young painters and hosting Night for Rousseau.

As Henri Rousseau said No teacher other than nature. I think there are nothing that we have as a endless inspiration compared to nature in our lives. Henri Rousseau who has been treated not as a painter but as a person who has a habit of drawing. The naive paintings that are materialized with nature rather became a masterpiece that touches the heart of the master of art. It is difficult for a person who is not a painter to draw a masterpiece but it is not impossible. It is because we all share nature the source of artistry.