Henri Rousseau, a French self-taught artist, started painting seriously in his early 40s after his retirement as a customs officer. He was also referred to as the primitive painter of France for his pure expression that reflected the innocence of a child, devoid of academic constraints.

Rousseau painted ‘The Sleeping Gypsy’ in 1897 depicting a lion that investigates an African woman wearing an oriental dress sleeping besides her mandolin and a jar of water on a moonlit night. The hard lines, flat perspective, meticulously rendered infantile anatomy and the distinctive palette, grant the painting its unique characteristic of naivety.

Having moved through various hands since its first appearance at the 13th Salon des Indépendants, the painting was eventually purchased by Alfred H. Barr Jr., an art historian, for the New York Museum of Modern Art. — M.S.K.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, August 24th, 2014