Woman in Red in the Forest 1907

Henri Rousseau painted 'Woman in Red in the Forest' with oil on canvas, sometime before his death in 1910. It's like he's laid down these flat, almost cartoonish greens, one after the other, creating a space that's both lush and totally artificial. You know, the way a kid might imagine a jungle. Look at the way he paints each leaf, each blade of grass, with such loving detail. It's like he's trying to capture every single thing he sees, even though the overall effect is kind of dreamlike and unreal. And that red dress! It pops so much against all that green, drawing you right in. Rousseau was self-taught, and you can see that in his work. There's a directness, a simplicity, that's really refreshing. It reminds me a little of someone like Balthus, in the way he creates these strange, still, slightly unsettling scenes. Ultimately, it's the ambiguity that gets me. Is this a paradise, or a trap?