Castle in Moonlight (Le Donjon)

Castle in Moonlight (Le Donjon)
Castle in Moonlight (Le Donjon)
(French, 1844-1910)

Castle in Moonlight (Le Donjon)

Date1889
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensionsoverall: 35 1/2 x 27 3/4 in. (90.2 x 70.5 cm) frame: 42 1/4 x 34 3/4 x 2 1/2 in. (107.3 x 88.3 x 6.4 cm)
ClassificationPAINTINGS
Credit LineSBMA, Bequest of Wright S. Ludington
Object number1993.1.9
Subject(s)
  • architecture
  • Moon
  • buildings
Collection
  • 19th century French
On View
On view
Label Text

Henri “Le Douanier” Rousseau (so nicknamed because he originally made his living as a customs official) was a self-taught artist whose voracious borrowings from popular culture and naïve, simple style were key influences on the development of Cubism. This fantastical image of an abandoned castle silhouetted against the night sky, typical of his work, is characterized by the simplified, hard-edged modeling of forms that Picasso and Braque would adopt in their own early Cubist paintings.

The castle depicted here is based on an actual location – the château of Falaise, in Normandy. Rousseau did not paint it from life; as was his usual practice, he probably worked from a photograph or a guidebook illustration.  The lack of direct observation allowed him to introduce tantalizing ambiguities into the composition. The pale diagonal at lower center could be either a path, the top of a wall or moonlight shining on a hillside.  The cottages in the foreground appear disproportionately large in comparison to the castle above, and a twinkling constellation appears to shine too brightly in a blue sky cushioned by clouds. In doing so, he transformed a tourist cliché into a mysterious, poetic and faintly menacing image.


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ca. 1860-62
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Théodore ROUSSEAU
c. 1850
The Glacis of a Ruined Castle-Fort
Jean-Baptiste-Camille COROT
1855-1865
Sun on Snow, Chartres
Henri LE SIDANER
1902
The Bastide of Anglass Guillac
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ca. 1926
Pansies in a Basket
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n.d.
Chrysanthemums of Summer
Henri FANTIN-LATOUR
ca. 1887
Pont Saint-Michel
Henri MATISSE
ca. 1901
Apotheosis of Berlioz
Henri FANTIN-LATOUR
after 1869
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