© New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2019

The Sleeping Gypsy

1897

Henri Rousseau

Oil on canvas

201.5×128cm

Collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA

Rousseau and his contemporaries in Paris were captivated by the wandering gypsies known as "bohémiens" in France: men and women who were pushed to the social margins during the upheavals of the mid-19th century. French writers and artists historically associated gypsies with Egypt and Bohemia, which may explain why Rousseau depicted a dark-skinned woman peacefully sleeping in a barren landscape, with a large lion sniffing around her shoulder. The Sleeping Gypsy evokes a longing for the pre-industrial era with its pure color planes, simple geometric forms, dreamlike atmosphere, and exotic subject matter. It signifies a new type of modern art while also capturing the allure of a bygone era. Details such as the unsettling eyes of the lion and the zipper-like teeth of the figure demonstrate the artist's unique imaginative power in his paintings.