French 1844-1910 Henri Rousseau Locations He was born in Laval in the Loire Valley into the family of a plumber. He attended Laval High School as a day student and then as a boarder, after his father became a debtor and his parents had to leave the town upon the seizure of their house. He was mediocre in some subjects at the high school but won prizes for drawing and music. He worked for a lawyer and studied law, but "attempted a small perjury and sought refuge in the army," serving for four years, starting in 1863. With his father's death, Rousseau moved to Paris in 1868 to support his widowed mother as a government employee. In 1871, he was promoted to the toll collector's office in Paris as a tax collector. He started painting seriously in his early forties, and by age 49 he retired from his job to work on his art. His wife died in 1888 and he later remarried. Rousseau claimed he had "no teacher other than nature", although he admitted he had received "some advice" from two established Academic painters, Felix Auguste-Clement and Jean-Leon Gerome. Essentially he was self-taught and is considered to be a naive or primitive painter.  Related Paintings of Henri Rousseau :. | Portrait of a Woman | Repast of the Lion | View of the Fortifications | Boy on the Rocks | The D'Entrecasteaux in a Tempest |
Related Artists:
BOSSCHAERT, Jan-Baptist
Flemish painter (1667-1746)
Susanne Henry
in 18th centery.
Ernest Laurent
(June 8, 1859 -- June 25, 1929) was a French painter and printmaker. He was born in Gentilly and died in Bievre. Laurent was a neo-impressionist artist whose main influences were his instructor Ernest Hebert and his friend Georges Seurat. Laurent took second prize in the Prix de Rome in 1889 and in 1890, Laurent arrived in Rome, where Hebert remained Director of the Academie de France. From Rome, he went to Assisi where he underwent a mystical experience. It would profoundly influence his art. The work he returned to Paris from Assisi was noted for its religious themes. Over time, profound religious devotion influenced his artistic motif and religious symbolism and scenery crept into his work. This aspect of his life ran counter to Seurat's materialism and the two parted ways.