ROUSSEAU, PIERRE ETIENNE THEODORE ( 1812– 1867), French painter of the Barbizon school, was born in Paris on April 15, 1812, the son of a tailor. At the age of 15 he began his artistic education under the landscapist Charles Remond and then under Guillon-Lethiere. But his style was formed chiefly by his own efforts in working direct from nature in various parts of France. Theodore Rousseau shared the difficulties of the ro mantic painters of 183o in securing for their pictures a place in the annual Paris exhibition. The influence of the classically trained artists was against them. He exhibited one or two unim portant works in the Salon of 1831 and 1834, but in 1836 his great work "La Descente des vaches" was rejected; and from then until 1848 he was persistently refused. He was not without champions in the press, and under the title of "le grand refuse" he became known through the writings of Thore, the critic who afterwards resided in England and wrote under the name of Burger. During these years of artistic exile Rousseau produced some of his finest pictures : "The Chestnut Avenue," "The Marsh in the Landes" (Louvre), "Hoar-Frost" (now in America) ; and in 1851, after the reorganization of the Salon in 1848, he exhibited his masterpiece, "The Edge of the Forest" (Louvre), a picture similar in treatment to the composition called "A Glade in the Forest of Fontainebleau," in the Wallace collection.
Up to this period Rousseau had lived only occasionally at Bar bizon, but in 1848 he took up his residence in the forest village.
At the Exposition Universelle of 1855, where all Rousseau's re jected pictures of the previous 20 years were gathered together, his works were acknowledged to form one of the finest groups. However, his struggles continued and his health began to give way. He was elected president of the fine art jury for the 1867 Expo sition. Finally he began to sink, and he died, in the presence of his friend, J. F. Millet, on Dec. 22, 1867.
Rousseau's pictures are always grave in character, with an air of exquisite melancholy. He left a number of sketches and water colour drawings. His pen work is rare ; it is particularly searching in quality, he also executed four etchings and two heliogravures. There are a number of fine pictures by him in the Louvre, and the Wallace collection contains one of his most important Barbizon pictures. There is also an example in the Ionides collection at the Victoria and Albert museum.
See A. Sensier, Souvenirs sur Th. Rousseau (1872) ; E. Michel, Les Artistes celebres: Th. Rousseau (189i) ; J. W. Mollett, Rousseau and Diaz (189o) ; D. Croal Thomson, The Barbizon School of Painters: Th. Rousseau (1892) ; E. Chesneau, Peintres romantiques: Th. Rousseau (588o) ; P. Burty, Maitres et Th. Rousseau (1877) ; W. Gensel, Millet and Rousseau (Bielefeld, 5902) ; L. Delteil, Le Peintre-Graveur (1906) ; E. Michel, La Forel de Fontainebleau (1909) .