Art Captions

Author notes

0059. The Sleeping Gypsy

CornTown

on March 5, 2010

By Henri Rousseau (1844-1910)
Circa. 1897
Symbolism

Despite the face that Rousseau never had any formal training, his paintings are able to bring the viewer into a world of fantasy and dream. Rather than striving for realism, he simplified his characters enough so that they look unworldly. For instance, the black loin is depicted to appear almost like a stuff animal so that the animal doesn’t look menacing. At the same time, the scene shows a sleeping man, bringing into question if the lion is real or if the whole scene is all in the man’s dream.

Jacob “Corntown” Gray

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