La Carriole du Pere Junier

The La Carriole du Pere Junier painting was birthed from Henri Rousseau’s acquaintances who were concerned about his life. The first portrait that Henri made was a portrait of himself and a number of his great friends.

The painting consists of Rousseau and the neighbours, including a husband, a wife, their niece and nephew’s daughter. Pere also included Claudia Juinier’s horse. It is also easy to note three dogs on the painting. Although Rousseau has a wide array of paintings, there is none that shows a combination of such domestic animals.

The Body of the Trap

Rosseau concentrated on several types of artwork that depict traditional occurrences, one of them being the Body of the Trap. The art project is similar to that included in The Wedding Party in that the faces of the people involved can be fully seen. Also, Pere wanted to clearly show the space between the paved gutter and the sidewalk that was shown on the lower side of the artwork. Among the many paintings that Rosseau is famous for, the La Carriole du Père Junier painting has the most information about where he gets material for his work.

The Components of the Painting

He has used two photographs in most of his work: one belonging to J.J. Sweeney and the other to Robert Delaunay, which is soaked with paint. A third photograph included in Pere’s work was unidentified. The photos were taken during a tour in Paris. When the photos were being taken, the angle of the camera had to be changed. Although the artwork shows the horse in the same position, the dogs and people were moved.

Rousseau used the photos to make his designs by using a pantograph to increase the size of the image. That helped him remove the tree behind the horse and use more plantations. In the painting, the figures do not follow any manner depicted on the photos. Maybe there were some more photos that Rousseau would have used to make the artwork better. However, he chose what would bring out the painting to his liking. Pere arranged the figures carefully to avoid overcrowding the whole composition. The artwork falls perfectly on the vertical and horizontal axes.

Max Webner’s Suggestions on the Art Work

Max Weber, one of the witnessed the creation of the project, thought that the dog took up more space on the painting than it should have. After sharing the suggestion to Rousseau, he said that that was how he wanted it to remain. See also some other contemporary art by Miro, such as Melancholic Singer, People in the Night and Catalan Landscape.