Henri Rousseau

Born in Cairo, Henri Rousseau received his artistic training in Paris in the studio of Jean-Léon Gérôme. While Gérôme was famous for his controlled academic style, Rousseau espoused the freer aesthetic - characterised by bold and dynamic brushstrokes - of the Delacroix-inspired painters Eugène Fromentin and Adolf Schreyer. His paintings of Moroccan and Algerian life typically depict nomadic horsemen, surrounded by open spaces and high skies, or town scenes. Rousseau was no stranger to North Africa, and his paintings display great spontaneity of execution and an accurate rendering of light, as exemplified by the present work.