Product Description
Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) was a self-taught artist with a unique style, exemplified in his visionary jungle scenes. These dream-like tableaux, for which he drew heavily on visits to Paris' Botanical Gardens, captivate with the lushness of their plant and animal life, while unsettling the viewer with their heady combination of exoticism and romanticism.

This sumptuously illustrated book provides not only a comprehensive overview of Rousseau's career, but also penetrating insights into his inspiration. With large, color reproductions of his paintings, many previously unpublished illustrations of his sources and influences, and a wealth of new research on his life and work (including the only interview conducted with the artist), Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris

is poised to become the definitive volume on this remarkable painter. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

you just wanna hug these paintings !
The paintings are reproduced in wonderful detail and there's lots of them, although some are printed smaller than you wish.The description says that there is an interview in this book with Rousseau himself; there is not.This book is otherwise a pure joy.Get it.

Rousseau le douanier
Lovely plates, good historical references of the era, but sadly misinformed about Rousseau's painterly habits and the impulses which made him take up his materials.

Superbly illustrated
Henri Rousseau Jungles in Paris was first published in 2005 conjunction with the exhibitions of the same name at the Tate Gallery London, Musée d'Orsay Paris and National Gallery of Art Washington, 2005/2006.

In this comprehensive study of Rousseau the several essays consider various aspects of the artist and his work, the back cover describes the book as a "definitive overview (which) provides new perspectives on both the life and the works of this remarkable artist". In the opening essay Francis Morris take a general overview and looks at the contemporary setting and considers his sources and inspiration. Then Christopher Green considers what is "so strange and exotic" about Rousseau's pictures. Vincent Gille looks more closely at the sources that influenced the artist. Nancy Ireson looks at Rousseau's paintings, dividing them into various groupings such as "Images of War and Peace", "The Peaceful Exotic", "French Landscapes", "The Dangerous Exotic" and "Mysterious Meetings". Further essays look at the artist's "Critical Fortune" (Claire Frèches-Thory), ". . . as an Academic" (John House), and "The Magic of the Images . . ." (Pascal Rousseau). The book concludes with a chronology which provides a parallel with politics, explorations and art/entertainment/communications; a selected bibliography, notes, and a list of exhibited works.

Jungles in Paris is a most attractive book, it is beautifully presented and superbly illustrated. There are over 150 full colour illustrations, and around a further 50 in black and white, the latter being mostly period photographs, postcards or press cuttings. A large number of the pictures are reproduced full page, the generous landscape format of the book being taken full advantage of, and there are several details of the paintings. For these superbly presented paintings the book is worth it alone.

Splendid!
This book/catalogue is splendid! It was gorgeously created. The care the author and editor put into the making of this book shows on every page. But what makes this book unique is that every painting is shown IN COLOR -- not black and white sections taking up half the book, etc. The paintings are also put on the page in a way that makes you focus on the genius of each and every one. It makes you realize that Rosseau truly was a genius in his time. He was an original, and this book is a great tribute to him and his art -- would enjoying having on both his/her coffee table and as a book to read and treasure!

Beautiful book full of full page prints...
I love looking at the amazing prints in this book by the primitivist Rousseau.Look at the cover of this, this tiger in the grass. Rousseau was a Parisian in the last part of the 1800's who never left Paris (in spite of telling friends he had visited Mexico.) New animals never before seen such as gorillas and tigers and leopards were coming to the Paris zoo. New exotic plants were coming to the huge Parisian greenhouses. People were talking about new and exciting places like Africa, Mexico and South America. There were photographs being shown in galleries depicting these strange places. And there was Rousseau, a lowly government clerk, with his fantastic imagination, seeing in his mind all these strange and wonderful places full of tigers, natives, huge flowers, flocks of pink flamingos, monkeys and all sorts of fantasy landscapes.
This book says, quoting a friend of Rousseau's, that Rousseau would at times start trembling while he painted and become almost in a sort of ecstatic frenzy as he imagined what these places were like.
At the time people laughed at his paintings as being like a child's art. People stopped laughing at some point and began gasping in awe.
I remember seeing his paintings a few years ago at the Corcoran Gallery in Washington D.C. I could not believe my eyes. I never wanted to stop looking at the very huge, fantastic paintings, with the monkeys peeking from the amazing foliage.I have never seen such a beautiful, incredible, fantasy as these paintings anywhere to this day.
I can't imagine a better book on Rousseau than this one. ... Read more

Product Description
Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) emerged from humble circumstances - reflected in his nickname, "the customs official". An employee in the Paris customs bureau, Rousseau was an autodidact who incrementally worked his way into a position among the artists who were renewing the art world at the turn of the century. It was a difficult journey - for years the art world laughed at the layman's flat, icon-like figures, simple landscapes and, in his late phase, exotic jungle scenes. However his "naive" compositions in fact became an emblem that piqued the interest of the avant-garde. Rousseau's jungle paintings consisted of ornamental variations of plant leaves, among which he set brilliantly coloured predators, natives and naked beauties. In so doing, the artist evinced intuitive principles of design and compositions, which subsequent avant-garde artists had to work out for themselves with great effort. Ultimately winning recognition as an uncompromising modernist, Rousseau inspired comparison with Derain, Cezanne, Matisse and Gauguin. He became acquainted with Apollinaire, Delaunay, Picabia, Brancusi and other important figures; in 1908, Picasso held a legendary banquet in his honour.Today, "Rousseau's myth," a fascinating mixture of primitive idyll and flight from civilization, of concrete and abstract, holds a secure place in the history of art. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Melville with a Paint Brush
Henri Rousseau astonishes! I've seen it in the eyes of other museum-goers. In New York, Paris, Philadelphia, San Francisco, in every gallery where one of Rousseau' painting is hung, people will stop and gasp. These days, having been 'astonished' by 100 years of expressionism, surrealism, and abstraction, they will instinctively gasp with appreciation. In the 1880s and 1890s, when Impressionism was still regarded as wild and woolly, the exhibition-goers of Paris gasped with contempt and ridicule. The 'public' had a harder time accepting Rousseau than any other painter of the era except, perhaps, Vincent van Gogh. Wouldn't it be 'comforting' to be sure that we today are just as blind? that we are failing to recognize the geniuses amongst us? I'd be happy to be regarded as a hide-bound philistine by my great-grandchildren if I could bequeath them a great under-appreciated painter like Rousseau instead of an ecological catastrophe!

As with all Taschen art publications, this book is beautifully printed on durable paper, with accurate colors and excellent resolution. It will have the strongest visual impact on people lucky enough to have seem some of Henri Rousseau's paintings 'live' in museums. Rousseau's most famous paintings are large; size is a component of their power, as is the tapestry texture of his paint application. But even if you've never had that opportunity, this book will reveal Rousseau's uniqueness to you. There's no mistaking a Rousseau painting for the work of anyone else, before or after him.

That's one of the big questions addressed in the text of his edition, by Cornelia Stabenow: Where does Rousseau fit? Post-impressionist? Anti-impressionist? Early modern? Proto-surrealist? Stabenow takes a good stab at providing an answer, but it would be a "spoiler" to summarize her thoughts. My own image is that he was the "tail that wagged the dog" of modern art. The other big question that Stabenow addresses is the persistent supposition that Rousseau was a "primitive", a naive painter who scarcely understood his own mentality. Stabenow presents quite a different image of Rousseau, of his life, his artistic ambitions, his craft, but once again I will abstain from summarizing her cogent analyses. She writes well, both in the voice of an art critic and as a cultural historian.

But what's this about Melville? I'm absolutely sure that Rousseau never read or heard of Hermann Melville. I doubt that any of the great French painters of his era had. Influence is not the issue. But the exoticism of Rousseau's "jungle" paintings -- unquestionably his greatest -- reminds me intuitively of Melville's South Pacific novels, Typee, Omoo, and Moby Dick. Both the writer and the painter were fervent 'democrats', radical supporters of the Rights of working men. Both were odd blends of materialistic mysticism, passionately committed to objective reality and yet convinced that objects were merely surfaces covering profounder mysteries. Rousseau painted every leaf of his unreal jungles with meticulous detail, just as Melville expounded every mundane facet of whaling as if it had metaphysical urgency. Besides, they were both "douaniers" - customs officers - Rousseau before his success as a professional painter, Melville after his 'failure' as a professional writer.

¿Where is his jungle?
One of the greatest post impressionist artist. Some said he was part of the naïve movement but for me the "naive" Rousseau was the most "wise" man portraiting dreams. Paintings like "The dream" and "Sleeping Gypsy" deserve a winning award. This book is very hard to find. Finally I had to buy it from a third part because Amazon always had the tittle as not available. Get dizzy of pleasure by his perception and prepare not to get trapted inside HIS jungle. ... Read more

Product Description
In this delightful introduction to the art of Henri Rousseau children explore a tropical jungle while they learn about the colors and themes that make the artist’s paintings masterpieces of deceptive simplicity.As a customs official, Henri Rousseau escaped the boredom of his job by creating colorful paintings of a fantastic dream world—a place where apes and lions cavort, snakes slither, flamingoes stroll, tigers hunt, and enigmatic figures entice unsuspecting visitors amid lush, tropical plants and flowers. This book draws children into Rousseau’s most famous works, pointing out the many elements and symbols he incorporated, and helping them understand the use of perspective and color that were his trademarks. Biographical information reveals the importance the natural world played in Rousseau’s life and the playful text encourages further investigation into the power of imagination and creativity. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Inappropriate material for a children's book.
This is a lovely book, with some good reproductions. Unfortunately, two full frontal nudes are included in an ele. age book. Big mistake. Parents want to be the one who decide when and where their ele age children will see the human body unclothed. I don't blame them. I will have to cut pages out to use this book.

a great use of art
I used this book in a class with 1st grade class... with the exception of a few nudes (which usually gets giggles)this book was great for kids.The addition of the art history and information on every picture in the book was great.Henri would be sooo happy that his art was being used in a children's book.It inspired the kids to keep using their imaginations to create art. ... Read more

Product Description
Rousseau's series of jungle painitngs are widely seen asthe pinnacle of his achievement.The artist's work was and stillcontinues to be the subject of controversy.This book answers many ofthe questions surrounding Rousseau's importance as an artist,reproducing in high-quality color his jungle paintings and examiningthem in a wider art-historical context. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A very good survey of Rousseau's art
The layout and color reproductions are quite good, considering the book's modest size. Werner Schmalenbach comments on the artist's charming paintings, their historical background and influence on comtemporaries, as well as key events in his life. The text is illuminating, lively, and unpedantic-- as Rousseau would have liked it. Also, the price is right. .... Get it! (Even though the book is out of print, I have seen several copies in art museum shops.)

Congratulations to Prestel, the publisher, for making Pegasus Library books available to the wide public-- great art books which are kind to the wallet. ... Read more

Product Description
Nicknamed "Le Douanier" ("the customs officer"), Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) was in his early forties when he finally embraced his metier in painting, arriving with his independently achieved realism fully formed. Like Erik Satie, whom he resembles in what Roger Shattuck memorably called "tranquil self-confidence," Rousseau straddles the Parisian avant gardes at the turn of the century, admired by Redon, Gauguin, Jarry and Degas at the outset of his career, and championed by Picasso, Apollinaire and Delaunay towards its close. Rousseau's style was derisively dubbed "Primitivism" by the press, but its lucid unity of limpid color and eerily serene definition was sophisticated in its simplicity, as his early advocates knew. Happily, Rousseau was so steeped in his vision that he could not be diverted from it--Apollinaire wrote that "Rousseau had so strong a sense of reality that when he painted a fantastic subject, he sometimes took fright and, trembling all over, had to open the window." With 80 color illustrations, this book commemorates the hundredth anniversary of the artist's death, placing at its core Rousseau's fascination with the frictions between a domesticated West and an untamed imaginary natural world. Previously unpublished records of early encounters with his works dimensionalize Rousseau within the lively milieu of his time, and show him to have been, from the start, a much beloved artist. ... Read more

Product Description
Join Puffer and artist Henri Rousseau in this engaging book that explores the life and work of self-trained artist Henri Rousseau. While the book is specific to the artwork of Rousseau, many of the descriptive, analytic, and interpretative skills that the book introduces can be applied when looking at other art objects. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Introduces young readers to memorable artistic treasures
Pamela Geiger Stephens' Dropping In On Rousseau is an enjoyable and rather elegant picture book that blends the famous Rousseau's classic artworks with simple and engaging color illustrations by Jim McNeill. A bumbling Puffer flies into early twentieth-century Paris to meet the self-trained artist Rousseau, in this cleverly written and presented book that introduces young readers to memorable artistic treasures. Also very highly recommended is the sixteen minute VHS video of Dropping In On Rousseau (CP-6185, $$).

Perfect Companion Book for the Video of the Same Title
Have you ever visited an art museum and wondered what people were thinking as they stood for extended periods of time in front of a masterwork?Have you ever wondered what it was that you were missing that everyone else saw?"Dropping in on Rousseau" might be just what you need to help you better understand how to describe, analyze, and interpret works of art.

While "Dropping in on Rousseau" is specific to the artwork of the self-trained French artist, Henri Rousseau, many of the descriptive, analytic, and interpretative skills that the book introduces can be applied when looking at other art objects.Although the book is categorized as a book for children, the skills that it introduces and fosters are skills that could help adults as well as children learn to understand art better.

This is a book that belongs in every well-read child's home collection.It is a book that should be in every school library.Beautifully illustrated and well written," Dropping in on Rousseau" will appeal to children and adults; it is a perfect companion to the animated video of the same title. ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Magical
Tunnel books are an old idea in a new form: creating the perspective of depth with 5-6 concertinaed panels of an image. Utilising the work of Henri Rousseau in this respect is almost heartbreaking in its conceptual purity: his beautiful, naive style results in a 3d image of great delicacy. The book needs lots of light to be effective - preferably direct overhead, but changing the light source and direction subtly alters the 3d effect. Play around with it. I know this sounds simplistic! but that's what this is about: some people will flip over this, others will be completely unmoved. Me? It's sitting right next to my monitor, ready to offer a shot of surreal beauty any moment I care. ... Read more

Product Description
Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) is at once one of the most popular and most enigmatic of artists. "Interpreting" his work was no less difficult for his contemporaries than it is for us today. Different accounts of his life and art make him out to be either the starting point for modernism or a naïve, "primitive" artist, cut off from the world around him. What was it about his paintings that fascinated contemporaries like Picasso and the Surrealists? And what was it about his personality and social status that meant he never became part of the avant-garde?

Revealing some of the truths behind the myths, Interpreting Henri Rousseau is richly illustrated throughout. ... Read more

Product Description
Presents a biography of Henri Rousseau ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Dissapointed with this book...
I have three other books from this series and have read them all to my primary school students (1st-3rd grade). This book, however, was not appropriate for that age group, and was a terrible purchase. The story was too long and confusing, too much information that was not written in a manner that was interesting for children, it talked about how he spent time in jail, how he lied, how he knew it didnt matter if he payed attention and did well in math and science because all he wanted to do was be an artist... nice message! ... Read more

Product Description
A man walks into the greenhouse in a botanical garden, sits down , and falls asleep. In his dreams, he wanders into a jungle where he undertakes incredible adventures. Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) wanted to be a famous artist even though he was working as a customs official, and sought refuge from everyday life by painting fascinating pictures. In his works, monkeys play among tropical flowers and mysterious figures lure the viewer into an exotic world.Amazon.com Review
This dreamy children's book celebrates Henri Rousseau, the French customs inspector and self-taught painter whose Sleeping Gypsy is one of the most popular paintings in New York's Museum of Modern Art. A mild yet wonderfully self-confident man, Rousseau was something of a mystery to biographers, and still is. This book weaves bits of biographical information into a delightful tour of some of his most lovable works--his self-portrait on the banks of the Seine, in which the gigantically important artist dwarfs some tiny figures on a nearby path and looms over the Eiffel Tower, for one.

After an introduction in which readers learn that Rousseau liked to take long walks in the country on his Sundays off from work, the story develops into a tall tale. A coworker brings Rousseau a leaf from a plant in the botanical gardens, "where the most wonderful plants from far-off lands" grow. The artist then talks his way into the gardens late one afternoon, and, once inside, falls asleep. Dreaming, he meanders through jungles and fabulous settings--his paintings, of course. The dreamscapes will inspire any young fantasist: there is a Native American woman on a chaise in the jungle, surrounded by astonishing flora and fauna; monkeys swinging on vines; a wide-eyed tiger in a thunderstorm; and outsize blossoms that might have inspired William Steig's Zabajaba Jungle. In the end, Rousseau awakes, leaves the garden, and resolves to paint the wonderful scenes of his dreams forever after, much to the delight of real-life art lovers the world over. --Peggy Moorman ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

This book is exquiste!
Just the fact that the pages are matte and not glossy makes my day.Beautiful reproductions, lovely and dreamy story...what more could one ask?I recommend this delightful book for adults (such as myself), as well as children. ... Read more

Product Description
Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) never visited the tropics or saw a jungle in real life, anymore than he studied the wild animals he painted in their natural habitat. Rousseau's jungle paintings were the fantasies of a city dweller, constructed from visits to the Botanical Gardens in Paris, from books and from his vivid imagination. Nevertheless they have struck a chord with succeeding generations of viewers, offering a dream of escape from banal reality to an exotic and savage realm. In this beautiful miniature gift book the jungle paintings are reproduced in all their full, jewel-like colour, along with details highlighting the intricacy of the painter's extraordinary vision, and a brief explanatory text. A perfect and affordable introduction to the unique world of Henri Rousseau. ... Read more

Product Description
A brief biography of Henri Rousseau accompanies fifteen color reproductions and critical interpretations of his works. ... Read more

Product Description
Henri Rousseau, called le Douanier because of his early career with theFrench customs service, is one of the most important, and fascinating and least studied oflate nineteenth-century artists. His determined and unapologetic primitivism distanced hiswork from that of most of his contemporaries, but he was widely admired by Picasso,Apollinaire, and Kandinsky and is now seen as one of the pioneers of the modernmovement. This beautiful book offers a detailed portrait of Rousseau's life and career aswell as sensitive interpretations of his unusual, individualistic art.

Götz Adriani tells Rousseau's strange life story: his petty bourgeois background, hisattempts to establish himself as an independent artist after leaving the customs office, andhis reaction to the derision with which his art was greeted in his own time. Adrianidiscusses the paradox that Rousseau had reactionary views about art and politics but wastaken up by the French avant-garde. He describes Rousseau's particular brand of visualand conceptual realism and the way he set the exotic animals, figures, and plants of hisdreams against the bland background of the Parisian suburbs. He explains Rousseau'scontact with Alfred Jarry, Apollinaire, Picasso, and other artists of the Parisian avant- garde. Finally, he examines a selection of little-known and well-known paintings,provides details about their subjects, provenance, and reception, and shows how theyinfluenced other artists. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Superbly illustrated
Henri Rousseau Jungles in Paris was first published in 2005 conjunction with the exhibitions of the same name at the Tate Gallery London, Musée d'Orsay Paris and National Gallery of Art Washington, 2005/2006.

In this comprehensive study of Rousseau the several essays consider various aspects of the artist and his work, the back cover describes the book as a "definitive overview (which) provides new perspectives on both the life and the works of this remarkable artist". In the opening essay Francis Morris take a general overview and looks at the contemporary setting and considers his sources and inspiration. Then Christopher Green considers what is "so strange and exotic" about Rousseau's pictures. Vincent Gille looks more closely at the sources that influenced the artist. Nancy Ireson looks at Rousseau's paintings, dividing them into various groupings such as "Images of War and Peace", "The Peaceful Exotic", "French Landscapes", "The Dangerous Exotic" and "Mysterious Meetings". Further essays look at the artist's "Critical Fortune" (Claire Frèches-Thory), ". . . as an Academic" (John House), and "The Magic of the Images . . ." (Pascal Rousseau). The book concludes with a chronology which provides a parallel with politics, explorations and art/entertainment/communications; a selected bibliography, notes, and a list of exhibited works.

Jungles in Paris is a most attractive book, it is beautifully presented and superbly illustrated. There are over 150 full colour illustrations, and around a further 50 in black and white, the latter being mostly period photographs, postcards or press cuttings. A large number of the pictures are reproduced full page, the generous landscape format of the book being taken full advantage of, and there are several details of the paintings. For these superbly presented paintings the book is worth it alone.
... Read more