Henri Rousseau, "Football Players"


   In the whole of Art, every emotion and human feeling should be encountered, and the one great feeling so often missed is humor.  I don't think Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) intended for this oil painting to be laughed at, but in 2020, it certainly puts a smile on my face.  And, so that is my gift to you this week.
   This marks the 3rd Rousseau painting portrayed on this blog (entry 18, The Dream from 8/15/2019 and entry 40, The Sleeping Gypsy from 1/6/2020).  So his life has been adequately covered, but two reminders. One is that Rousseau took to painting as a mature adult, into his 40th year, and second, it took sometime before his work was accepted by the artistic Paris community.  But he was diligent, and kept going, and today we have a wonderful collection to appreciate and admire. 
   So here we have four almost identical men, in costumes that today look more like pajamas.  If you look close you will see the only difference is color.  One "team" has brown/yellow stripes and light brown hair, while the other has soft blue/white-pink stripes and black/brown hair.  The upturn of their identical mustaches create a happy image when their mouths are not visible.  Seeing the ball in the air and the movements of the feet show this is a half second of time, a stop action image.  In another half second the whole composition will fall apart.
   The figures are united by the court fence directly under the middle of the format, with most of the players inside the lower portion.  Most of the lower portion is ground, and lots of it, showing the depth of their playing field.  The upper portion is devoted to Rousseau's marvelous tree leaves.  Notice how three of the players have a dark space behind them, helping them to stand out from the background. And, what a glorious and dense forest this is.  The color of those leaves tell us it must be fall. One source tells me the game is rugby, not soccer or American football. 
    Football Players was completed in 1908.  It is an oil on canvas measuring 39.5 inches high, 31.6 inches across.   It is part of the collection of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City.  
   Make Art a part of your life, it's a beautiful thing to do. 



 

Comments

  1. Char HarguthOctober 28, 2020 at 9:25 AM

    Why does this look like a feminine group to me? Maybe it's their "uniforms" or their movement. They are moving across the center of the painting, and the perspective has us looking right down the middle. Is this surreal? The trees don't seem anchored, and the dark cloud coming in from the right seems like a foreboding intruder. The three green trees poking up in the back are amusing. He certainly has patience with all those meticulous individual leaves. It's an unusual painting, but quite engaging. I don't know the game, but evidently the artist does!!! A good painting to study! Thanks.

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