Henri ROUSSEAU (known as the customs officer): The Snake Charmer, Original signed lithograph, 1976

Henri Rousseau : (1844-1910) aka "Le Douanier Rousseau" was a french painter. He is considered as the most important figure of Outsider Art. He was born to a modest family, and studied Law before going to Paris, where he worked in an excise, where comes from his surname "Le douanier", as person who collects a tax. He learned painting by himself and produced a great deal of canvases, often representing jungle landscapes, when in the meantime he never left France. His inspiration mainly came from illustrated books, botanical gardens, and his encounters with soldiers who took part in the french intervention in Mexico. His works show an elaborated technique, but their childish appearance caused a lot of mocking. He often exhibited at the Salon des indépendants, and started receiving positive critic from 1891, and met a lot of artists at the end of his life, such as Robert Delaunay, Paul Signac, Guillaume Apollinaire, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Alexandre Cabanel, Edgar Degas, William Bouguereau, Paul Gauguin, Alfred Jarry, Toulouse-Lautrec and Pablo Picasso. His work is nowadays considered as crucial to Outsider Art, and has influenced numerous artists, notably the Surrealists.