---
title: "Henri Rousseau: jungles imagined in Paris"
description: "Henri Rousseau imagined his jungles in Paris. See how he brought observed plants, animal images and a sofa together in three paintings."
canonical: https://chicodasilva.org/en/articles/henri-rousseau-paintings/
lang: en
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
translations:
  en: https://chicodasilva.org/en/articles/henri-rousseau-paintings/
  fr: https://chicodasilva.org/fr/articles/henri-rousseau-peintures/
  pt: https://chicodasilva.org/pt/artigos/henri-rousseau-pintura/
---

Art and artists

# Henri Rousseau: jungles imagined in Paris

Henri Rousseau imagined his jungles in Paris. See how he brought observed plants, animal images and a sofa together in three paintings.

A tiger bares its teeth among leaves bent by a storm. In another painting, a woman reclines on a sofa, surrounded by huge flowers and animals. Henri Rousseau (1844–1910) painted these forests without ever leaving France. Plants he observed in Paris and animals he knew from reproductions became part of a landscape he assembled himself.[^national-gallery][^dream]

The eye moves through these paintings from leaf to leaf. One hides an animal’s paw, another reveals a face; stems and branches cross the canvas without opening a clear path into the distance. Three paintings show how Rousseau turned material from gardens and printed images into places with their own rules for distance, scale and the figures that share the scene.

The use of the picture surface also offers a way to look at Chico da Silva. In *Fantastic Birds and Butterfly*, the larger bird’s wing opens into broad, petal-like shapes, while the background strokes continue between the creatures. The vegetation surrounding Rousseau’s figures gives way here to a field of coloured marks. Both pictures make the eye move between recognising an animal and following the pattern around it.

[![A tall fantastical bird with a spoked, wheel-shaped wing, a small chick, and a striped butterfly above. Fantastic Birds and Butterfly, Chico da Silva, c. 1967, gouache on paper.](https://img.chicodasilva.org/jcc-073/chico-da-silva-fantastic-birds-and-butterfly-undated-gouache-on-paper-55x76cm-joao-cunha-collection-jcc-073-chicodasilva.org-1280.jpg)](https://chicodasilva.org/en/paintings/fantastic-birds-and-butterfly-073/)

*[Fantastic Birds and Butterfly (c. 1967)](https://chicodasilva.org/en/paintings/fantastic-birds-and-butterfly-073/), Chico da Silva João Cunha Collection.*

## Where the plants and animals came from

Rousseau was self-taught and worked as a toll collector in Paris. The job gave him the nickname *Le Douanier*, or the customs officer. After retiring in 1893, he continued to be known by the name of his occupation. The forests in his paintings came from urban life: botanical gardens, the zoo, colonial exhibitions and printed images.[^monkeys]

At the Jardin des Plantes, he visited the hothouses and could study tropical plants. The complex also housed live animals and stuffed specimens. According to London’s National Gallery, the tiger in *Surprised!* combines these zoological sources with magazine illustrations and observation of the domestic cat. Materials found in the city bridged the distance between Paris and the jungle.[^national-gallery]

The National Gallery of Art in Washington also records an animal album, *Bêtes sauvages*, published by the Galeries Lafayette department store and kept in his studio. His sources included commercial images and the ways France presented distant territories to its public. They supplied animals and plants that Rousseau could take out of context and bring together in a painting.[^monkeys]

## Surprised!, 1891: rain crosses the leaves

![An orange tiger, its back arched and teeth bared, moves through green and reddish leaves; diagonal rain and lightning cut across the grey sky.](https://chicodasilva.org/editorial/henri-rousseau/surprised-640.jpg)

*Surprised!, 1891. Oil on canvas, 129.8 × 161.9 cm.

Henri Rousseau. National Gallery, London, NG6421. Bought with the aid of a donation from Walter H. Annenberg, 1972. Reproduction: National Gallery; photographer not identified in the collection entry. [National Gallery collection entry](https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/henri-rousseau-surprised).*

The tiger occupies the lower half of the canvas. Its tail passes behind stems on the left; its orange back arches upwards, while its head reaches to the right. Narrow leaves cross its body and conceal parts of its legs. It is hard to locate the ground beneath the animal: vegetation fills the space below and behind it.

Almost everything is moving. Branches bend, grasses lean and pale lines of rain cross the scene diagonally. The tiger’s stripes meet other stripes in the leaves. On the right, red foliage interrupts the greens and spreads beneath one of the lightning bolts. The animal stands out through its colour and face, but the pattern on its body continues that of the forest.

This was Rousseau’s first jungle painting, exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in 1891. The National Gallery explains that the semi-transparent lines of rain were added over the finished picture. The rain thus joins areas painted separately: it passes over the canopy, the large leaves and the tiger.[^national-gallery]

Who has been surprised? The animal’s mouth is open and its eyes are wide, but no prey is visible. The museum’s entry leaves the question open and notes that Rousseau also referred to the canvas as a tiger chasing explorers. The title and image allow us to see both the threat of a leap and a startled response to the storm.[^national-gallery]

## Tropical Forest with Monkeys, 1910: finding the animals

![Five grey and orange monkeys appear among overlapping leaves; white and yellow flowers and red plants surround a small opening in the foreground.](https://chicodasilva.org/editorial/henri-rousseau/tropical-forest-monkeys-1280.jpg)

*Tropical Forest with Monkeys, 1910. Oil on canvas, 129.5 × 162.5 cm.

Henri Rousseau. National Gallery of Art, Washington, John Hay Whitney Collection, 1982.76.7. Reproduction: NGA; photographer not identified in the collection entry. [National Gallery of Art collection entry](https://www.nga.gov/artworks/61253-tropical-forest-monkeys).*

A broad band of pale blue sky stretches across the top. Below it, layers of green build up the forest. Long, blade-like leaves cross broad leaves with rounded edges; on both sides, stems form a network in front of the more distant trees. The trees grow lighter in colour towards the background, though their outlines remain sharp.

The five monkeys gradually come into view. A grey animal stretches between branches on the left. Another, larger one sits in the centre and turns its face out of the picture. Two orange monkeys hang on the right, almost merging with the stems. Lower down, the fifth sits in a small clearing. Beneath the open sky, plants surround or conceal most of their bodies.

The scale of the flowers helps us gauge this world. The white petals along the bottom approach the size of a monkey’s head; yellow flowers open beside the orange animals. Red plants form a mass along the edge and reach towards the centre. Before finding the animals, the eye has to pass through this first layer.

The NGA’s analysis compares the leaves to overlapping cutouts in a theatrical set. The museum also draws attention to the green sticks held by the central monkeys: dangling strings suggest fishing rods. This observation brings a human activity into the animal scene and makes the forest feel even more like a place invented by a city dweller.[^monkeys]

## The Dream, 1910: a sofa in the jungle

![A nude woman with long hair reclines on a brown sofa among large flowers; two lions peer through the leaves, and a person plays an instrument beneath the moon.](https://chicodasilva.org/editorial/henri-rousseau/the-dream-1280.jpg)

*The Dream, 1910. Oil on canvas, 204.5 × 298.5 cm.

Henri Rousseau. The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 252.1954. Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller. Reproduction: MoMA; photographer not identified in the collection entry. [MoMA collection entry](https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79277).*

The sofa occupies the left side of the picture. Its rounded back curves around the reclining woman and forms a large brown area among the greens. She extends an arm towards the centre, where a person almost disappears among the stems. The yellow instrument at the figure’s mouth and the striped clothing make the person easier to find. Just below, two lions look through the leaves.

Rousseau painted the scene on a canvas almost three metres wide. The sofa, body and flowers are spread across that width, with no clearing to bring them together. Plants grow in front of the sofa and behind it; flower stems rise beside the woman’s arm. We cannot see how the furniture could have got there or where the space supporting it ends.

Some leaves look large enough to cover an entire body. Open flowers reach the height of the woman’s face, while others pass behind the lions. Near the top, the pale moon meets small circles of orange fruit. The eye changes scale at every turn: it follows a vein, recognises an animal, returns to a flower.

Rousseau’s explanation, reproduced in MoMA’s 2021 gallery label, places the woman asleep on the sofa: she dreams that she has been transported to the forest and hears the music of an enchanter. The image brings together the reclining body and what she dreams, with no need for a frame to separate the two places.[^dream]

The account of the dream gives a reason for the sofa’s presence, but its strangeness remains visible in the painting. The upholstery has a firm edge and a continuous curve; plants are arranged around it with the same precision that surrounds the animals. This piece of domestic furniture sits wholly within the forest. Near the centre, the sound the woman would hear depends on finding a small instrument among dozens of leaves.

## A tree among Chico’s creatures

[![A horned dragon with a scaled tail, beneath a branch where two striped snakes coil. Dragon and Serpent, Chico da Silva, 1973, acrylic on paper.](https://img.chicodasilva.org/jcc-075/chico-da-silva-dragon-and-serpent-1973-acrylic-on-paper-hardboard-70x100cm-joao-cunha-collection-jcc-075-chicodasilva.org-1280.jpg)](https://chicodasilva.org/en/paintings/dragon-and-serpent-1973-075/)

*[Dragon and Serpent (1973)](https://chicodasilva.org/en/paintings/dragon-and-serpent-1973-075/), Chico da Silva João Cunha Collection.*

In *Dragon and Serpent*, from 1973, a dark trunk rises along the left edge and separates the dragon’s long head from a winding body. The branches have cut ends and leave strips of yellow background visible. In *The Dream*, successive leaves hide the animals; in Chico’s painting, the tree is a narrow structure around which bodies and areas of colour are arranged.

The dragon fills almost the whole width. Its neck rises, its back forms an arch and its tail reaches the upper right corner. Small circles divide the orange area of its body; short strokes cover its legs and the background. Space is organised by the fit between these surfaces, while Rousseau stacks leaves in overlapping layers. The comparison can continue among [Chico’s paintings](https://chicodasilva.org/en/paintings/), where each record offers a closer view and lists technique and dimensions.

[^national-gallery]: National Gallery, London, [*Henri Rousseau, Surprised!*](https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/henri-rousseau-surprised), “Overview” and “In-depth” sections, audio description transcript and technical details. Plants and animals observed in Paris, the painting of the rain, title and 1891 exhibition.

[^dream]: The Museum of Modern Art, New York, [*Henri Rousseau, The Dream*](https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79277), collection entry 252.1954 and gallery labels from 2011 and 2021. Parisian sources and the explanation of the dream attributed to the painter.

[^monkeys]: National Gallery of Art, Washington, [*Tropical Forest with Monkeys*](https://www.nga.gov/artworks/61253-tropical-forest-monkeys), text about the work and technical details, 1982.76.7. The painter’s career, the *Bêtes sauvages* album, the interpretation of the monkeys and the comparison with a theatrical set.

## Related reading

-   [Chico da Silva and Brazilian Naïve Art](https://chicodasilva.org/en/articles/brazilian-naive-art/)
-   [Primitive, Naïve, Indigenous](https://chicodasilva.org/en/articles/primitive-naif-indigenous/)