Recollections of Henri Rousseau. This item is unavailable.Recollections of Henri Rousseau

• A movingly personal portrait of the French post-impressionist painter Henri Rousseau
• Written by art dealer and friend Wilhelm Uhde
• Part of the Lives of the Artists series

Henri Rousseau (1844-1910), known as Le Douanier (the Customs Officer) after his day job, was the first outsider or naïve artist in the history of Western art to be recognised at his true worth. His astonishing paintings, particularly of jungles, have now entered popular consciousness to such an extent that it is difficult now to imagine how strongly they were resisted at the time.

Much of the credit for this transformation is due to the author of these Recollections, the dealer and historian Wilhelm Uhde. It was Uhde who put on Rousseau’s first exhibition, and the catalogue he wrote for the occasion is the basis of the Recollections. In it he painted the picture of a man of naïveté, humour, gentleness and total commitment to an art of whose importance he was utterly convinced.

The version printed here is the final revision. An introduction by Nancy Ireson sets the Recollections in context.

Wilhelm Uhde (1874-1947), born in Brandenburg, moved to Paris in 1904, and quickly became involved with the avant-garde. He opened a gallery in 1908, where he showed Picasso, Braque, Delaunay and others, and wrote the first book on Rousseau in 1911. As an enemy alien his collection was confiscated by the French state and later sold. He organized the first exhibition of naive art in 1928, and his involvement with one of the artists was the theme of the 2008 film Seraphine. In hiding for much of the war, he died in Paris shortly after.