Since I was a child, I've received delight from the "naive" paintings of Henri Rousseau, a man who worked in the Paris customs house until he retired early to devote himself to his magical and mystical paintings. Many of these painting depict jungle and forest scenes, otherworldly.

In this painting from 1905, a woman in formal garden dress stands at the edge of a fantastical forest of gigantic orange trees and blue daisies that tower above her head. She does not seem to acknowledge at all that she is in an unusual setting, which adds to the whimsy of the scene.

This painting is on display at the Barnes Museum in my suburban county outside of Philadelphia. Others of Rousseau's paintings hang in major museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC, and yet he is buried in a pauper's grave. Picasso and the avant garde were quick to acknowledge his influence and pay him homage. I just know his paintings always make me smile. To see the painting, just google Rousseau and the title.

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