Oak Branch
Henri Rousseau (French, 1844–1910)
1907/08
- Medium
- Pen and gray ink on cream wove paper
- Classification
- Drawing and Watercolor
- Dimensions
- 15.9 × 10.9 cm (6 5/16 × 4 5/16 in.)
- Culture
- France
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Prints and Drawings
- Credit line
- Gift of Dorothy Braude Edinburg to the Harry B. and Bessie K. Braude Memorial Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
According to his close friend, artist Robert Delaunay, all of Rousseau’s drawings were destroyed after his death. However, as the inscription indicates, this rare drawing was a gift from the artist to a certain “Mademoiselle Herminie,” and it survived as a result. Rousseau often used flowers in his work for their symbolic meanings. He was particularly fond of daisies, which traditionally represent innocence and purity. Perhaps a more heartfelt message was intended here, as the petals of daisies are often plucked, one by one, to find out if one is loved: “she loves me, she loves me not.”
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
