A parody of Henrệ Rousseau’s (1844-1910) Jungle series of paintings. The lagoon is an imaginary place of dense dark jungle; the stillness of dusk across the lagoon, the brightness of the moon, all conveys a calm anticipation of the coming night.

Medium: Marquetry using 17 different veneers including bolivar,  birdseye, burrs, ripple anegre, koto and sycamore.

Created by like a ‘jigsaw puzzle’ this image contains nearly 500 individually cut pieces of dyed and natural wood veneers. The veneers are carefully selected from standard ranges produced in Italy and are chosen for their particular suitability of grain and shade that best represents the natural form I want to portray.

This detail shows ‘sand shading’ used to create depth to the image. Dipping individual veneer shapes into hot sand, scorching the surface, creates this effect.

Henri Rousseau 1844 – 1910

“His is the simple and yet incredible story of an unworldly ‘petit bourgeois’ who painted in an introverted, almost autistic manner. He himself cannot have been fully aware of what he was doing; and in art as in life remained gullible and naive to the end.”

'myself'  1890

Rousseau was a late starter to painting, having been a Toll Gate Keeper to Paris until his 40th year. His paintings convey a naivety that is captivating. In 1891 he shocked and scandalised the art scene in Paris with his first jungle painting ‘surprise’. An imaginary ‘ cut out tiger’ stalks across an imaginary wild jungle, his prey unseen, the scene beaten by gale driven rain. This raging image was to be the first of 26 pictures in the Jungle cabinet series to follow this theme (1904-1910).

'the snake charmer' 1907

“…….each successive picture shows some further advance in quality of composition and imagination. Cane, oak, eucalyptus, lilac and banana plant, sanseviera, fern, palm, cactus and agaves provide unending multiplicity of form.

The palette includes fifty shades of green…….The characteristic collage style becomes more pronounced, with wild animals and their prey, combat between natives and lions or tigers, hordes of monkeys at play, gleaming orchids, lantern-like oranges, red suns and white moons emblazoned in the green.”

His travels never took him out of Paris - his jungle was the botanic gardens, his menagerie from the Zoo.

 

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