The Dream 1910

Henri Rousseau painted "The Dream" in 1910, using oil on canvas. It's a provocative image in which the naked figure of a white woman reclines on a velvet couch amidst a dense jungle. We know that Rousseau never left France, and the animals and plants in this imagined world were based on those in Parisian botanical gardens. The French colonial project, which was in full swing at the time, saw the Western gaze turned to other cultures. It was a time when exoticism was in vogue. But how much did the artist and his audience really know about the colonial world? Perhaps Rousseau's imagined world is a comment on the divide between reality and the Western fantasy of it. To fully understand this art, we can explore sources like exhibition reviews, colonial-era literature, and the history of French museums. This is an image that makes us think about the political role of art and the social conditions that shape artistic production.