Art Institute of Chicago

Hikers climbing up to a Mountain Chalet

Henri Rousseau

Date

c. 1888

Medium

Black crayon, with graphite, heightened with white chalk and white pencil, on tan wove paper

Culture

France

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

When Rousseau was a toll operator for one of Paris’s city gates, he made the decision to become an artist. With no academic training, he started copying works at the Musée du Louvre in 1884 and two years later exhibited his works with the Neo-Impressionists at the Salon des Indépendants. In this drawing Rousseau’s lack of formal training is evident in the flattened forms and odd spatial relations of the landscape. These idiosyncrasies would inspire artists such as Vasily Kandinsky and Pablo Picasso.

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