Le Peintre et son modèle

Le Peintre et son modèle from 1900 is a rare subject in Rousseau's oeuvre — the painting of painting itself. An artist works at a canvas while a model sits nearby, the whole scene rendered with Rousseau's characteristic flat attention. The Musée National d'Art Moderne holds this self-reflexive image, which sits oddly alongside jungle fantasies and suburban landscapes in his output. That Rousseau chose to depict the act of artistic creation suggests his earnest identification with the professional artist role he had claimed for himself after retirement, however unconventional his method.

The studio setting is depicted with Rousseau's typical even lighting — no dramatic shadows or atmospheric perspective. The artist figure and model are rendered with the same careful outline and locally consistent color that characterizes all his figurative work, the easel and canvas described with precise, almost diagram-like clarity.