by : Henri Rousseau / location : Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA / Year : c.1886 / Oil on Canvas

Original size: 106.9 x 89.3 cms

The picture with which Rousseau made his debut at the Salon des Indépendants, Carnival Evening (1886), was a masterpiece of its kind and an impressive beginning for the artist.

The approach to representation that he employed in this work is typical of “naive art.” Everything is literally and deliberately drawn—every branch of the trees is detailed exquisitley.....Rousseau was a master in his own right.