Detail of The Dream by Rousseau in the Museum of Modern Art, March 2010

Henri Rousseau
The Dream
1910

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 6' 8 1/2" x 9' 9 1/2" (204.5 x 298.5 cm)

Credit: Gift of Nelson A. Rockefeller

Object number: 252.1954

Department: Painting and Sculpture


“The woman asleep on the couch is dreaming she has been transported into the forest, listening to the sounds from the instrument of the enchanter,” Rousseau wrote of this enigmatic painting. He sought to explain his insertion of a musician and a reclining female nude into a moonlit jungle full of exotic foliage and wildlife. The setting was inspired by his visits to Paris’s Jardin des Plantes, a combined botanical garden and zoo. The self-taught painter was a crucial precedent for Surrealist artists like Salvador Dalí and René Magritte, who also relied on incongruous combinations and dream imagery to create mysterious, unforgettable pictures.-- Gallery label from 2021

Text from: www.moma.org/collection/works/79277