Cover Image

The Dream (French: Le Rêve),1910, by Henri Rousseau. Oil on canvas.

6' 8" x 9' 9" (2.04m x 2.98m)

Exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, NY, USA.
Painting is in the public domain of the United States.

Though Henri Rousseau never visited a real jungle, he painted many. By going to local arboretums, gardens, solariums, and zoos, he conjured plants, animals, and muses into uniquely colorful junglescapes of his imagination. In fact, the primary figure in this work is Rousseau’s Polish lover of his youth Yadwigha, about whom he wrote a poem to accompany the painting: ‘Yadwigha in a beautiful dream / Having fallen gently to sleep / Hearing the sounds of a reed instrument / Played by a charming charmer ...’,