Deluded Sunday painter or visionary genius: What is Rousseau’s place in the pantheon of artists? We take a quick look at his life and his rise to success — though, unlike Picasso, whom he knew, success for him never included wealth. We also, of course, discuss his paintings — in particular, The Football Players, Carnival Evening, and The Sleeping Gypsy.

Bibliography: My sources include not only the books I mention, i.e.The Banquet Years: The Origins of the Avant-Garde in France, 1885 to World War I, and the Taschen book simply titled Rousseau, but also an article by Roger Shattuck in a collection of essays published in English by the Museum of Modern Art in 1985. Though I highly recommend The Banquet Years (and the Taschen book by Cornelia Stabenow), interested readers may like to know that some of the details of Rousseau’s biography were changed, probably in view of more up-to-date research, in the article. For instance, we are told in the book that Rousseau had nine children; in the article, the number is six. In the book, his surviving son goes away with the one surviving daughter to live with relatives, but in the article, the son continues to live with Rousseau into his adulthood, after Rousseau had left the toll service. The details about the 70-hour work week and the sabre on the belt also come from the article rather than the book.