By Ann Temkin

Henri Rousseau was a singular figure in the early-twentieth-century avant-garde, a self-taught painter who turned to art after retiring as a customs inspector at the age of forty-nine. Although he never left Paris, Rousseau painted a number of jungle scenes, drawing on images of the exotic as presented to the urban dweller through popular literature, colonial expositions, and the Paris zoo. The Dream (1910), the artist's last major work, is a surreal juxtaposition of the exotic and the domestic that exemplifies his uncanny exactitude. In this volume of the One on One series, Ann Temkin's essay guides readers in deciphering this mysterious painting, illuminating its significance and placing it in the development of modern art and in Rousseau's own life. 48 pp.; 35 illus.