Henri Rousseau, Surprised! (or Tiger in a Tropical Storm), 1891. Oil on canvas, 129,8 x 161,9 cm. © The National Gallery, London.
The French magazine Dossier de l’art n° 238 (April 2016) was dedicated to the exhibition “The Douanier Rousseau. Archaic Candour” at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. I contributed a text entitled “De Delaunay à Max Ernst, Rousseau en maître” (pp. 60-69).
Among the many figures of the avant-garde who loved him and his work, several bought works of the Douanier Rousseau. Their attachment to his character mingled closely with the fascination for his audacious painting which seemed to return to the origins of art in times of radical upheaval.
