Henri Rousseau attracted the Parisian avant-garde's attention at the 1886 Salon des Indépendants. Throughout his life he was ridiculed by public and critics, but leading writers and artists sought out the self-taught painter's freshness of vision. In 1885 he quit his job as a customs inspector, or *douanier,* to pursue painting full-time. Though he claimed to have served in the army in Mexico, sch
