Rousseau's S Bungle in the Jungle ; Hailed As a Great Artist, the Former French Customs Man Was a Sly Old Rogue Whose Paintings Were Ingenious Frauds

Summary

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HENRI ROUSSEAU, said variously to have been the son of a tinsmith and an ironmonger, to have had virtually no education and to have remained at school until he was 17, was, throughout his thirties, a minor customs officer in the department that dealt with tolls on the Seine in Paris. When, at the age of 41 or so, he decided to be a painter, he was dubbed Le Douanier, The Customs Man, and this is how he is still known; to speak of Rousseau is to leave one's hearers uncertain until the context makes the subject clear, but speak of Le Douanier and primitive images of jungle violence tamed by tedious formula are at once recalled to mind.

Only in the visual arts could a man decide, late in life and on no worthy grounds, to be an artist and at once find himself celebrated for wearying obsession and gross incompetence.

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Extract

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Rousseau's S Bungle in the Jungle ; Hailed As a Great Artist, the Former French Customs Man Was a Sly Old Rogue Whose Paintings Were Ingenious Frauds

Rousseau's first employment was as clerk to a local solicitor whose trust he betrayed by stealing money - of this the consequence was a month in prison.

Compelled to do military service, he joined an infantry regiment as a bandsman, the saxophone his instrument, but years later, when he left the service of the customs, he supplemented his small pension by giving lessons on the violin.

Had he chosen, at that age, 41, not to be an artist but a con...

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