Woman with Basket of Eggs

This is a painting by Henri Rousseau. Henri is very clear as he paints the woman, the tree, and everything in the portrait. A viewer can easily distinguish what Henri has painted. He captures the viewers’ attention through his detailed artwork. Every object is portrayed as it would be in real life.

Henri also included the aspect of time. He has shown through his artwork that the painting reflects a time in history, before the modern era. For example, he paints the woman with a greenish dress. The dress is old-fashioned. It has two white collars. The woman is also wearing a pink cotton sweater whose sleeves reach the elbows. The painting is not long enough to display the knees. However, it seems that the skirt and the pullover are long enough to cover the knees.

Henri also paints her wearing a sun hat, which was a common style for women in the 1900s. The hat is beige and has a reddish ribbon around it. Henri paints the woman right in the middle of the portrait. She is white with blonde hair flowing down to her shoulders. The woman is also wearing a blue ribbon-like material on the neck. She stands holding a brown basket filled with eggs. Henri paints her as a middle-aged woman between the age of 30 and 45. She stands in front of a greenish-yellow tree. It is quite large. The tree has small compound leaves structured in a pinnate design. They are alternate in form and take after a feather. The tree is covered with many leaves that cover most of the branches.

Only two branchlets can be seen shooting out. From the type of leaves, it seems as though it is a locust tree. They have a mixture of yellow and green colors. Henri depicts that the season at the time is autumn. The leaves would soon become yellow, dry up and fall off. It is daytime, and the area looks like a countryside region away from the urban centers. A large part in the background is bare ground-covered infield grass. Far from where the woman is, are a few houses. Most of them have red roofs apart from one which looks like a church. It has a dark rooftop. Henri shows that the women did household and domestic chores. Men could have been in war, steel factories, and other kinds of jobs. The painting seemed to have been painted in America. See also the work of Miro who contributed the likes of Femme Assise, Kopf and Barcelona.