The Snake Charmer
After Henri Rousseau, 1907.
Oil on canvas, 34 x 30.5 inches.
Private collection, Chester Springs, Pennsylvania.

Henri Julien Félix Rousseau was a French post-impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier (the customs officer), a humorous description of his occupation as a toll and tax collector. He started painting seriously in his early forties; by age 49, he retired from his job to work on his art full-time. Ridiculed during his lifetime by critics, he came to be recognized as a self-taught genius whose works are of high artistic quality.