LESSON IDEAS: Henri Rousseau - Art and Science

Middle School Ideas    Elementary Ideas    Lesson Plans

Begin your lesson with "Where's the Tiger" - song by Greg Percy. 
Get the kids acting out the song. Have some fun! 

Rousseau, Henri -- known as Le Douanier Rousseau (1844-1910). French painter, the most celebrated of naïve (untrained) artists.

His nickname refers to the job he held with the Paris Customs Office (1871-93), although he never actually rose to the rank of `Douanier' (Customs Officer). Before this he had served in the army, and he later claimed to have seen service in Mexico, but this story seems to be a product of his imagination. He took up painting as a hobby and accepted early retirement in 1893 so he could devote himself to art.

His character was extraordinarily ingenuous and he suffered much ridicule (although he sometimes interpreted sarcastic remarks literally and took them as praise) as well as enduring great poverty. However, his faith in his own abilities never wavered. He tried to paint in the academic manner traditionalist artists, but it was the innocence and charm of his work that won him the admiration of the avant-garde: in 1908 Picasso gave a banquet, half serious half burlesque, in his honor. Rousseau is now best known for his jungle scenes, the first of which is Surprised! (Tropical Storm with a Tiger) (National Gallery, London, 1891) and the last The Dream (MOMA, New York, 1910). These two paintings are works of great imaginative power, in which he showed his extraordinary ability to retain the utter freshness of his vision even when working on a large scale and with loving attention to detail. He claimed such scenes were inspired by his experiences in Mexico, but in fact his sources were illustrated books and visits to the zoo and botanical gardens in Paris.

His other work ranges from the jaunty humor of The Football Players (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1908) to the mesmeric, eerie beauty of The Sleeping Gypsy (MOMA, 1897). Rousseau was buried in a pauper's grave, but his greatness began to be widely acknowledged soon after his death.  (This biography is copied from Web Museum. Permission was not obtained to copy it - bio will be removed upon request)

Internet Links:

Know the Artist: Henri Rousseau links page

Jungle Interactive - create your own Rousseau style jungle on line. New from National Gallery of Art. 

School Art: Imaginary World of Henri Rousseau - Biography and a close look at Tropical Forest with Monkeys, 1910 - from National Gallery of Art

Art and Ecology Lesson -  Tropical Forest with Monkeys -  from National Gallery of Art

Music Integration:
"Foliage" by Riverdale Ensemble A tribute album to Henri Rousseau. -- features Rousseau's "Clemence Waltz" and  interpretations of three of Rousseau's works of art, "Merry Jesters," "Carnival Evening," and "Sleeping Gypsy." 

Excellent Video:
Dropping in on Rousseau  Video. A cleverly animated video of the artist Henri Rousseau for young viewers. A bird, Puffer, in an entertaining manner, interviews Rousseau giving him the opportunity to explain how he developed his unique style of painting birds, animals, and plant life after viewing them at the Paris Zoo and Botanical Gardens. Rousseau describes some of his paintings as actual examples are shown. Written by Pam Stephens and animations by Jim McNeill.

Middle School Ideas

Submitted by: Judy Decker
Unit: Art of Haiti, Rousseau, Science Integration
Project: Haitian Landscape - Markers
Grade level: middle school (6th grade)
Extension: Foil tooling lizard (inspired by Haitian steel drum lizards)
Extension; Shadow box poster board frame
Concepts: Elements and Principles of design, perspective using overlapping and scale, Science - biomes and adaptations.

Materials: Henri Rousseau reproductions, Haitian art reproductions, Animal handouts, live plants, 12 x 18 newsprint (for planning), 12 x 18 white drawing paper, Seral transfer paper, Ultra fine point Sharpei markers, assorted watercolor markers (Overwriters work great but are no longer available). This lesson reviewed the work of Henri Rousseau (an artist students were introduced to in elementary) and presented the art of Haiti. Students also looked for similarities in Edward Hicks' "Peaceable Kingdom" and that of Henri Rousseau. Comparisons were also drawn between the work of Rousseau and that of the Haitian painters. Students created a composition drawing from live house plants and handouts of various animals. They wrote about the biome in which the animals lives and any adaptation they would have to make to live in that environment.  Lesson Plan - Lizard Lesson Plan

     Elementary Ideas

Submitted by: Mary Lathron - Caledonia-Mumford Elementary, New York.
Lesson: Printmaking - 3-D layered print (2 plates)
Grade Level: 2nd grade through grade 6

  
click images for larger views

The prints are made from Styrofoam printing plates....they used one color of ink (actually, I use Chromacryl) - they had a choice of light or dark green for the foliage prints. They printed multiple copies on white paper. The animal image was printed in the same manner - they could use red, orange or yellow ink. When the prints were dry, they hand colored their prints using Sanford plastic markers (they are very crayon-like, but you can sharpen them in a regular pencil sharpener...they are "kind-of" erasable and they are hollow inside....I love them!) They cut out their animals and mounted them to the foliage prints using the foam 3D-O's. 

I use the Dropping in on Rousseau video and book in the beginning stages of the lesson to introduce the lesson/artist etc. While the students are working I play part of the audio cassette from the book called Panther Dream. (http://www.deaddisc.com/disc/Panther_Dreams.htm) Awesome rainforest sounds accompanied by music. The book and music is a collaboration by Bob Weir (Grateful Dead) and his sister Wendy. At some point in the lesson I will read the whole book to them....they love it!

Note: for 6th grade, you might want to do some reduction printing - reduce plate and print in multiple colors rather than coloring one color prints. Reduction prints will make it more of a challenge for them.

These works are awesome! Start by showing students several works by Henri Rousseau (Haitian works can also be used). Draw jungles on bright colored construction paper - include border design. Outline with black Sharpie or black crayon. Color heavily with oil pastels (build up a good layer). Brush over with black tempera with a little soap added (picture underneath barely visible). Paper clips scratched through the tempera to reveal the picture underneath (could also use scratch tools). All students had success - a sure fire winner. Good for grade 4 thru 6.

From Laraine Galloway: One year I did jungle scenes in the style of Rousseau.  I took the class to the Norton Simon Museum to study a Rousseau.  Each student was given a gift, a print of the Rousseau painting from the museum. The project they did was done on black mat poster board (about 24" x 20") - because I had some that was donated - and oil pastel.  The requirements were: 3 animals and one of the animals had to be a tiger and lots of vegetation. I did demos of basic plant and leaf designs, horizon lines, overlapping, working background to foreground, and provided lots of animal and plant references. Rousseau's style was very simple for them to emulate. They turned out great!

See also: 4th Grade Symmetrical Paper Masks 
4th Iguana masks. Focus was on symmetry although we were studying Rousseau.
Colored markers.

Jan Hillmer needed a lesson to go along with 2nd grade science - plant cycles. Student will be planting seeds in science class and watching them grow. They will transplant them into these earthen ware ceramic pinch and coil posts decorated with worms. Worm aerate the soil to help the plants grow.

Submitted by: Judy Decker
UNIT: Art and Science - Sculpture
Lesson: Cearmic flower pots with polymer clay (Sculpey)

Purchase some inexpensive ceramic pots. Students will make Sculpey flowers and leaves to glue onto the outside of the the pot. They will make some fun worm pot sitters to sit on edge of pot - or stick on dirt out of Sculpey clays.  Plant seeds in your flower pots and watch them grow. Alternate idea - Larger Worm Sculptures - whimsical.- worms in action - What do worms do underground? What are some activities for worms to do? Make props for sculpture (worm school - etc).

Submitted by: Theresa Parker, Discovery Elementary, Gig Harbor, Washington
Unit: Drawing - Science - Eric Carle
Lesson: Underground drawings with textures

Theresa presented the artist/illustrator Eric Carle to her students. In cooperation with the classroom teacher, Theresa chose to show what happens underground in the plant life cycle (a unit of study for 2nd grade in science class). Student brainstormed on all of the things the worms could be doing down there. They created underground cross section with texture panels and added Eric Carle style painted collage.

Students could choose a vertical composition or horizontal. More worms ideas to come!

Submitted by: Anne Clarie Dinosaur Diorama. See more Dinosaur ideas on her web site.

Anne Claire adapted a lesson she found on Enchanted Learning web site.

Older students may get into doing wire and tooling foil dinosaur sculpture inspired by John Payne.

Submitted by: Betsy Larson
Night Time Landscapes with Owls

This site came in handy today - Owl Pages  http://www.owlpages.com/species/gallery.html . We read "Owl Moon" and did night time winter landscapes.  Then we listened to a great horned owl. There are pictures of owls, too.  It dawned on me that many students would probably never hear one of these sounds in real life. 

Submitted by: Jeryl Hollingsoworth
Lesson: Ceramic Owls

Jeryl's first graders make a paper collage owl - working on symmetry and textures. Her next lesson is a ceramic owl with textures. See lesson plan.

Here is more Science fun from Crayola (now you will need to register to get the lessons)

New Noses 3-D paper Sculpture: Explore what all a nose will do - then design your own 3-D animal nose - glue to an animal face and have a Nose Store Display for animals to get a new nose. Lots of science here - talking about sense of smell - how noses work - animal adaptations - and so forth. Kids would love it! Create new, fun animal patterns, too

Tales and Tusks (could use Rousseau for art history -- Or use Andy Warhol
Endangered Species series prints):

Look at all the Animal Theme ideas:

Ecology & Environment:

Plants and Trees

Animal Patterns - Bugs - torn paper lesson from Dick Blick

Asian Brush Painting - from Nature lesson include handouts for plants, insects and fish. Asian brush painting lesson for elementary - from Detroit Institute of Art Exploring Asia through Art 

Send in your plans for the artist, Henri Rousseau - or Science integration 

Insects in Art - Resources

Arcyclopedia - do a key word search for insect and insects (artworks by title search)

Rob Evans - Pennsylvania artist - see set 9 and ten. Many weather images, too.

Ch'i Pai Shi - Oriental Artist

Butterfly and Moth symbolism  Symbols  Art Styles (search for Art on Insects.org)

M.C. Escher Insects  E.A. Seguy  William Rowe  Rodney Matthews  Browse for more

Eugene Alain Seguy 2 pages of images  Seguy butterfly prints 

Linda Herzog  Martiena Richter  Patricia Savage

Consuelo Gamboa  Gamboa- Dragonfly  Gamboa Bumblebee 

Annemieke Mein -embroidery More on Mein 

April Vollmer   

Nature - Wildlife Art

Worldwide Nature Artists Group 

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