Rousseau, Henri (1844-1910)
La muse inspirant le poète (The Muse Inspiring the Poet)
1909
Oil on canvas, 146.2 x 96.9 cm
Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel
The portrait of Guillaume Apollinaire and his partner, the painter Marie Laurencin, is one of the most famous portraits of Rousseau. While the poet championed Rousseau in his art reviews, Rousseau paid tribute to his friend with this “landscape portrait”, a pictorial genre of which he described himself as the inventor.
Symmetrically in the centre of the picture, the two figures appear in the Jardin du Luxembourg in a stiff but solemn pose between a row of trees and a flower bed. The first version of the painting (Pushkin Museum, Moscow) dates from 1908, as evidenced by an exchange of letters between Rousseau and Apollinaire. In response to the poet’s advice that gold lacquer was to be seen in the foreground and not the carnations he wanted because of their symbolic value, Rousseau created this second version, which remained in Apollinaire‘s possession until his death. (KMB)
See also:
• Apollinaire, Guillaume (1880-1918) | Jardin du Luxembourg (Paris) | Laurencin, Marie (1883-1956)