Artwork App

Geometric landscape painting filled with lush green stylized trees, leaves, and ferns, with a high horizon line. A patch of red leaves at lower right. At lower left, two black-skinned figures stand in front of a small rocky waterfall beside two antelope-like animals.

116.2 × 150.2 cm (45 3/4 × 59 1/8 in.)

The Waterfall

Among the very last compositions Henri Rousseau painted, The Waterfall is typical of the large-scale jungle scenes for which he gained renown in the 20th century. A self-taught artist who worked by day as a customs agent until the age of 49, Rousseau never set foot outside of France. Instead, he learned about the flora and fauna of far-away places through visits to Paris botanical gardens and zoos as well as in popular books. As a result, his landscapes often reflect how Parisians at the time imagined France’s colonial empires in Africa and the Americas. Here, he created a secluded vignette of two dark-skinned figures and a pair of deer at a stream surrounded by dense foliage. As we look upon them, seemingly undetected or just noticed by the deer, we encounter a fictional scene that reflects 20th-century European ideas about escaping modernity and returning to more peaceful origins.

Credit Line

Helen Birch Bartlett Memorial Collection

Colors

Exhibition History

New York, Museum of Modern Art, American Sources of Modern Art, March 10–31, 1933, not in cat. The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture Lent from American Collections, June 1–November 1, 1933, p. 52, cat. 369. The Art Institute of Chicago, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, June 1–November 1, 1934, p. 49, cat. 322. Pittsburgh, Penn., Carnegie Institute, A Survey of French Painting, April 2–May 14, 1936, n. p., cat. 40. The Art Institute of Chicago, Henri Rousseau, January 22–February 23, 1942, pp. 64–5 and 69 (ill.); traveled to New York, Museum of Modern Art, March 17–May 3, 1942. Venice, XXV Biennale di Venizia, June–October 1950, p. 235, cat. 20. London, Tate Modern, Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris, November 3, 2005–February 5, 2006, pp. 37, 41, 42, fig. 32, 45, 111, 116, and 223, cat. 23; traveled to Paris, Grand Palais, March 13–June 19, 2006 and Washington D. C., National Gallery of Art, July 16–October 15, 2006. Paris, Musée d'Orsay, Le Douanier Rousseau. L'innocence archaique, March 21, 2016–July 17, 2016; traveled to Prague, Narodni Galerie, Sept. 15, 2016–Jan. 15, 2017 (Paris only). Philadelphia, The Barnes Foundation, Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets, Oct. 19, 2025 – Feb 22, 2026; Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie, Mar. 24–July 20, 2026, no cat. no., pl. 55, as The Waterfall (La cascade).