Boy on the Rocks
1895-1897
Henri Rousseau, a self-taught painter who worked as a customs officer, created this delightfully quirky portrait of a young boy perched atop jagged, grey rocks. The boy, dressed in a stiff black jacket and distinctive striped knickerbockers, stares out with a calm, almost doll-like expression. Rousseau was a pioneer of 'Naïve art,' a style characterized by its childlike simplicity and lack of traditional perspective, which critics often mocked but artists like Picasso secretly admired. The flat, dreamlike quality of the sky and the sharp, almost paper-cutout look of the rocks are classic Rousseau touches, making the boy look like he's floating in a dreamscape.
- Technique
- Oil on canvas
- Material
- Canvas
Location: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.