Douanier Rousseau
Monday, August 18th, 2008
Henri Rousseau was one of those unfortunate geniuses who went unappreciated in his own time. He was not a rich man, and most of his work - as soon as it hit the gallery - was ridiculed by his contemporaries. Probably part of that came from the fact that Rousseau was not of some great school, but rather taught himself how to paint (a miracle in-and-of itself, given how well he does it).
But part of it may have come from Rousseau’s profession. Painting didn’t pay the bills unless you were extremely famous, after all, and Rousseau was not during his life. As such he worked in a patent office to pay for his expenses. Not a glamorous place by any stretch of the imagination.
And unfortunately, this title attached itself to Rousseau from then on, as he was called Henri Le Douanier Rousseau quite often. Or, in English, Henri ‘The Patent Officer’ Rousseau. Not terribly nice, that.