The Eiffel Tower

Henri Rousseau painted The Eiffel Tower in 1898. By this time, the Eiffel Tower had been a monumental landmark in Paris for close to ten years. It was somewhat new. His inspiration for painting this art piece came from the Eiffel Tower and the Seine River in Paris, France.

Henri painted a depiction of the Eiffel Tower, although his artwork varies, to some degree, from the actual Eiffel Tower. As a self-taught artist, Henri enjoyed the freedom to paint with perception and imagery rather than following conventional painting techniques.

Henri Rousseau is famous for claiming how he had no one to teach him how to paint. He remarked that his go-to teacher was nature, although later admitted to having received some counsel from two scholastic painters; Jean-Léon Gérôme and Félix Auguste Clément. Henri claimed that he invented the portrait landscape genre of painting. In this genre, an artist begins his piece with a background view of natural scenery or a city backdrop then finishes with a person in the forefront. Henry seems to have used the urban landscape genre of painting in The Eiffel Tower piece. This piece features a broad horizontal view of a portion of Paris and the Eiffel Tower.

The painting ‘The Eiffel Tower’ is oil on canvas. This piece is a portrayal of the Eiffel Tower and the beautiful scenery that surrounds it. The subjects of this artwork are the Seine River in the foreground and the Eiffel Tower in the back. Between the Eiffel Tower and Seine River lies a bridge, and behind it are some buildings in Paris. The background features a white cloudy sky with a hint of orange to signal either a sunrise or sunset. To the left and right are some trees, buildings and people fishing in the Seine River.

Henri Rousseau painted The Eiffel Tower when he was about 54 years old. He must have used the surrealism style in this art piece because it is a photorealistic representation of the Eiffel tower. There are, however, some inaccuracies from the actual scenery in the Eiffel Tower. For example, the painting does not depict the pyramid and exponential shape of the Eiffel Tower. The base of the Eiffel tower also seems hidden by the buildings. For the most part, however, it depicts the Eiffel Tower and its surrounding. The Eiffel Tower painting by Henri Rousseau is currently held in The Museum of Fine Arts Audrey Jones Beck Building in Houston, USA. See also the work of Miro, a related artist, who gave us titles such as Portrait of Vincent Nubiola, Nord Sud and The Farm.