Self-Portrait

1886–1893

Twenty paintings in seven years: ridicule and friends

Over the next seven years Rousseau, dividing his time between work, family and painting, showed about twenty pictures at the Salon des Indépendants; the public barely noticed them and critics kept mocking them, but his friends, the Impressionist painters, supported him, valuing his spontaneity and sincerity.

1893

Retires from the civil service to paint

In 1893, at the age of 49, Rousseau retired from the civil service on a modest pension to devote himself entirely to painting.

after 1893

Meets Alfred Jarry

Soon after leaving his post Rousseau met the talented young poet Alfred Jarry, who was struck by the oddity of his work and introduced him to the circle of intellectuals around the avant-garde journal Mercure de France, in whose pages a favourable review of his art appeared.

1893–1910

A studio in Montparnasse

In 1893 Rousseau moved to a studio in Montparnasse, where he lived and worked until his death in 1910.

1894

“War” at the Salon des Indépendants

“War,” shown at the 1894 Salon des Indépendants, began Rousseau’s wider fame: the picture earned praise in Mercure de France, and its powerful allegorical message convinced many connoisseurs that he was no ordinary landscape painter.

after 1897

The mayor of Laval declines “The Sleeping Gypsy”

Believing himself an heir to the academic tradition, Rousseau offered “The Sleeping Gypsy” to the mayor of his native Laval, who declined with a sneer.