Henri Rousseau

Rousseau worked for years as a toll collector at the Paris city customs, earning the nickname “le Douanier” (the customs officer). He had no formal art training, began painting seriously around forty, and devoted himself to it full-time after retiring.

His flat, vivid, meticulous and innocent paintings were long mocked by academics and critics but admired by avant-garde artists such as Picasso. His tropical jungles came from imagination and visits to the Paris botanical garden; he never actually left France. He is regarded as the foremost figure of Naïve art.