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The Waterfall

Geometric landscape painting filled with lush green stylized trees, leaves, and ferns, with a high horizon line. A patch of red leaves at lower right. At lower left, two black-skinned figures stand in front of a small rocky waterfall beside two antelope-like animals.

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  • Geometric landscape painting filled with lush green stylized trees, leaves, and ferns, with a high horizon line. A patch of red leaves at lower right. At lower left, two black-skinned figures stand in front of a small rocky waterfall beside two antelope-like animals.

Date:

1910

Artist:

Henri Rousseau
French, 1844–1910

About this artwork

Among the very last compositions Henri Rousseau painted, The Waterfall is typical of the large-scale jungle scenes for which he gained renown in the 20th century. A self-taught artist who worked by day as a customs agent until the age of 49, Rousseau never set foot outside of France. Instead, he learned about the flora and fauna of far-away places through visits to Paris botanical gardens and zoos as well as in popular books. As a result, his landscapes often reflect how Parisians at the time imagined France’s colonial empires in Africa and the Americas. Here, he created a secluded vignette of two dark-skinned figures and a pair of deer at a stream surrounded by dense foliage. As we look upon them, seemingly undetected or just noticed by the deer, we encounter a fictional scene that reflects 20th-century European ideas about escaping modernity and returning to more peaceful origins.

Status

On View, Gallery 391

Department

Modern Art

Artist

Henri Rousseau

Title

The Waterfall

Place

France (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1910

Medium

Oil on canvas

Inscriptions

Signed, l.r.: "Henri Rousseau, 1910"

Dimensions

116.2 × 150.2 cm (45 3/4 × 59 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Reference Number

1926.262

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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