The War
1894-1895
Henri Rousseau, a self-taught former toll collector who never left France, created this fierce allegory of conflict. A wild-eyed woman gallops across a barren, stormy landscape on a charging horse, brandishing a sword and torch while trampling over the bodies of the fallen below. Though Rousseau is best known for his lush, dreamlike jungle scenes, this stark, apocalyptic vision shows his dramatic range. The chaotic energy and primitive style of his work became a huge inspiration for the Cubists and Surrealists, like Picasso, who threw a famous banquet in his honor.
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