Rousseau unit study

Henri Rousseau artist study

I think I am almost done writing about our French artists for our homeschool geography romp through France.  It’s been a great series of artist studies for this non-artist.  So, here’s our Henri Rousseau artist study, with some fun bits and pieces we learned along the way.

Henri Rousseau unit study

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Henri Rousseau artist study supplies

to be honest, I really only used oil pastels* and typing paper* (yes, I buy it by the caseload, and 1 case lasts us a year or so), oh and this book, which I loved the art work because it’s in Henri Rousseau’s art style:

The Fantastic Jungles of Henri Rousseau– This does a great job of covering how Rousseau’s life, and how he wasn’t particularly respected as an artist for the longest time, but he kept on working at it because he loved artwork.  As I was writing this post, I found the cutest youtube video on the book:

 

Learning more about Henri Rousseau

I’ve discovered there are some amazing youtube videos about artists, so that is now one of my go-to sources, and I found a particularly fun one about his Tiger in a Storm painting.

 

Now, that we’ve learned a bit about who Rousseau was, it was time to get started drawing.

 

How my kids turned a simple Henri Rousseau artist study into a very silly exercise

So, I told the kids we were going to make art in the same style as Rousseau, and they were excited.  Then I told them we were going to use oil pastels, to try out a new style, and they were less excited.

Rousseau unit study silly kid
notice the Groot figure modeling for Superman

They got even less excited when I said it had to be in his style, so that means putting lots of animals and greenery in there.  And they agreed and got started, I should have known they were up to something RIGHT THEN.

But, I didn’t, so I happily got to drawing my cat, and adding lots and lots of greenery around the silly cat.

Rousseau unit study project

And one by one they revealed their projects.  I’m missing Superman’s solo picture (Groot, not in the least a nature picture, though he tried to argue it), but I have Princess’ unicorn surrounded by flowers.  That’s more or less the project, if you count imaginary animals.

But Batman’s Rocket the Raccoon riding on our dog…..  Why yes they are both animals, and yes they do have the feel of Rousseau, but talk about obeying the letter of the law, while subverting the law.

I really shouldn’t have expected different from him.

Oh well.

 

More French Artists and artwork

 

LThere’s more great unit studies over at iHomeschool Network with the May birthday unit studies.


Comments

4 responses to “Henri Rousseau artist study”

  1. I love how your kids are not afraid to follow their own artistic direction. There is something to be said about homeschooling 🙂

    1. That’s for sure, though a gifted public school teacher can do this too, if they are willing/able to let the kids have some free rein. That’s the hard part, you can’t have quite as much chaos in a public school, or if you do, you get lots of upset notes from principals.

  2. We are including Rousseau in our rain forest studies, as he did a lot of jungle art. A tenuous link, I know, but I like his art and I am the boss!

    1. I totally see the link, so I’d run with it too.

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