HENRI ÉMILIEN ROUSSEAU, 1875 - 1933 (FRENCH)

Artist Biography

Henri Émilien Rousseau (17 December 1875, Cairo – 28 March 1933, Aix-en-Provence) was a French painter, graphic artist and illustrator, known for his Orientalist equestrian paintings. Henri Rousseau was born in Cairo in 1875. His father Léon Rousseau, was an engineer who participated in the construction of the Suez Canal and later became the General Director of Public Works for the Khedive, Ismail Pasha. His family left Cairo after the Anglo-Egyptian War, returned to France and, in 1885, settled in Versailles. 

Henri Rousseau remained a frequent visitor to the Middle-East where he composed sketches and visual materials to support his paintings on canvas. Whilst enrolled at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Rousseau was a student of the most famous Orientalist artist of the period, Jean-Leon Gerome. After receiving an award at the Salon of 1900, the Académie des Beaux-Arts provided Rousseau with a travel grant. He used the grant to visit Belgium, Holland, Spain, Tunis and Algeria. He presented his work from these travels at the Armory Show in 1913. The artist returned to North Africa numerous times between 1920 and 1932; visiting Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco in particular five times. 

In 1919 Rousseau moved from Paris to Aix-en-Provence, where he joined the Félibrige (an Occitan cultural organization) and became Vice-President of the local art academy in 1932. Although his work was given little recognition after his death, in 1994 an "Henri Rousseau Association" was created. The association has held exhibitions in Toulouse (1997) and Aix (2007). The Musée Granet has a large collection of his works. 

Museum Collections

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Chambéry
Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence
Musée du Louvre, Paris
Musée d’Arts de Nantes, Nantes
The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD