Children and dolls, Henri Rousseau,No. 1906, oil painting on canvas, 67 x 52 cm, Orange Art Museum, Paris.

Doll children, Henri Rousseau, about 1906, oil painting on canvas, 67 x 52 cm, Orange Garden Art Museum, Paris.

Everything is step by step and arranged properly. All the petals on that flower are there, and you can see at a glance that it is a daisy. Hold it straight, but not too tightly, or you will be caught. Flowers may have begun to wither, but it's easier to be with dolls, at least for real life. Today, the clouds are all on holiday, and the blue sky is like washing. Painting is serious in a sense and can't be moved. The child's head was forced to fall to shoulder height, and his eyes stared at the viewer without blinking.

So the doll is fine. Really, its mouth curled down, revealing vague regret, as if it had no idea of the status quo-here, because it had to do so, that's all. In contrast, children have a wild determination in their eyes. Almost round face. Looks like heavy shoulders. But we all know that children have chubby cheeks and no neck. The length of the small hand sticking out of the sleeve is just right.

We still have to figure out where to put this chubby child. Any chair will do. Her legs are close together. But uncomfortable and unnatural. Children are more suitable for clean rural areas, and small flowers are regularly distributed on her cloth. But we should also show some imagination. After all, nature is arbitrary. There are many colors in the garden; A little red can remind people of the color of clothes, as fragrant as strawberries; White echoes daisies, and black branches echo dolls' heads. So the painter can put his signature in the lower right corner of the painting without attracting attention.

Is the child sitting in a chair or on the grass? It's hard to judge. Chairs may be more suitable, but for children, grass is undoubtedly a better choice. No matter what it is, this pattern will not remain the same, whether it is sitting, standing or leaning slightly like here. Then, maybe it would be better to find some more feasible temporary solutions. So we found that the child was between two postures, neither sitting on the ground nor standing completely upright. In fact, her calf is buried in the grass, which makes her posture more stable. This arrangement is undoubtedly very suitable for Rousseau. He doesn't like to draw feet. He always has a way to hang his feet under his legs and never stays on the ground honestly.

In fact, everything Rousseau painted is true: the child's strange posture, her clean but tight clothes show limitations, the doll turns gray because of playing too much-a doll is very important to the child, like a living person, or something she doesn't want to give up-and socks that pull to her knees. A painter paints by accumulating details. Once he collected enough money, his goal was achieved. He recorded everything, did his duty and worked hard, and finally went too far. He is not the kind of person who beats around the bush and falls into vague hints. The purpose of this painting is to say one thing without beating around the bush.

For people who are keen to make things clear, it is not a bad thing to stick to the essence. Obviously, eyes, eyebrows and mouth attract the most attention. These are the unique elements of any personal trait. But the painter must have maintained a similar reasoning method. When he painted his work further, all the different parts had the same intensity. He didn't impose any hierarchy on the things in the painting. At the moment they appear in the painting, they are entitled to the same attention.

The painter made a concession: the Kobanawa meadow connected with the horizon may become darker, and the distant line may become more blurred. Rousseau, after all, is not familiar with the tradition of his own field and does not understand the rules of perspective. But he chose to use less skills when dealing with the scenery in the background. This is a question of authenticity. In contrast, in medieval paintings, when Christ faced the viewer and pondered the fate of mankind, people's faces always maintained a positive attitude, showing undeniable dignity. The child is not a Christian figure, but her portrait reminds us of the solemnity of the characters in ancient paintings, so she looks even greater.

Rousseau emphasized the appearance of things, thus destroying their ultimate balance. What he writes is bigger or smaller or more accurate. In order to be as close to the world as possible, he drew the outline of things with some blunt strokes, and finally confused their meanings: his model features are so obvious that it is difficult to recognize it as a child. She seems to have applied eye shadow, her eyebrows seem to have been redrawn, and her mouth is too tight. The lines on the skin turned into wrinkles, and the shadow on the lower part of her face was too deep, which inevitably reminded us of the unshaven beard.

If the elements of this portrait are taken apart one by one, they are all credible. What makes us uneasy is the way they are combined. The child's hands and head are not sure whether they are on the same person, but her legs seem to have their own lives. Her expression doesn't belong to her either.

Regardless of this, this painting still has its meaning. It has a disturbing aura, which Rousseau almost never wanted, because he was addicted to "realism" and fantasized about mastering the skills of academic painters. After pursuing this insignificant goal in vain, he succeeded in achieving another goal that he never hoped to achieve. The power of his paintings lies not in his ability to capture appearances, but in his direct expression of hidden inner appearances.

Perhaps because he didn't do it on purpose-unfortunately, he was excluded from the academic painting world-what he found and described from the model was something hidden for a long time and the most fundamental ancient element. This is why, compared with the portrait of the middle class, the child's painting is like a prehistoric statue buried in the soil. She has an adult doll in her hand, but it is more like a primitive celebration ceremony, a prayer for vitality. Because of this, it reveals everything that we are associated with some vague strength, seriousness and terror.