Hikers climbing up to a Mountain Chalet
c. 1888
Medium
Black crayon, with graphite, heightened with white chalk and white pencil, on tan wove paper
Dimensions
38.9 × 31.8 cm (15 3/8 × 12 9/16 in.)
Classification
prints and drawing
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
186405
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
When Rousseau was a toll operator for one of Paris’s city gates, he made the decision to become an artist. With no academic training, he started copying works at the Musée du Louvre in 1884 and two years later exhibited his works with the Neo-Impressionists at the Salon des Indépendants. In this drawing Rousseau’s lack of formal training is evident in the flattened forms and odd spatial relations of the landscape. These idiosyncrasies would inspire artists such as Vasily Kandinsky and Pablo Pica...