Vintage 1950s Rousseau "The Toll-Gate" Swiss Art Print

A mid-century print of Rousseau’s The Toll-Gate (1900) on 9" x 11.75" thick glossy paper with hints of patina.

Commentary on the work circa 1950s: 

THE TOLL-GATE (1900). - This is one of the toll-gates on the outskirts of Paris where it was the Douanier's function to repress the smuggling-in of dutiable goods. We may be sure he did this leniently, observing, the while, from the corner of an eye, any picturesque details of the nearby landscape. Here Rousseau is trying, purely and simply, to give an exact representation of the scene. And the oddest thing is that he really believed his Toll-Gate looked like this. Actually that part of the picture showing the gate and the ramp of old fortifications of Paris displays an astounding faculty of invention. Though he was a contemporary of Renoir and Cézanne, Impressionism never impaired the serenity of his wholly objective view of the world.

Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (1844-1910) was a French post-impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier, a humorous description of his occupation as a toll and tax collector.