The Snake Charmer (Rousseau)

The Snake Charmer (French: La Charmeuse de Serpents) is a 1907 oil-on-canvas painting by French Naïve artist Henri Rousseau (1844–1910). It is a depiction of a woman with glowing eyes playing a flute in the moonlight by the edge of a dark jungle with a snake extending toward her from a nearby tree.

History

The Snake Charmer was commissioned by Berthe, Comtesse de Delaunay, the mother of artist Robert Delaunay. It was Rousseau's first large commission and was exhibited in the 1907 Autumn Salon. Because Rousseau never traveled outside of France, the exotic plants in the painting resulted from Rousseau's visits to the Jardin des plantes and from magazines. From 1922 to 1936, The Snake Charmer was in the collection of Jacques Doucet. It was promised to the Louvre in 1925 and became part of its collection in 1937.

Description

The painting has an asymmetric vertical composition with a detailed depiction of the jungle on the right and a woman playing the flute on the left, back-lit by moonlight from a full moon. A snake, charmed by the music, stretches horizontally across the painting. The Musée d'Orsay described the painting as "a black Eve in a disquieting Garden of Eden".

Popular culture references

Sylvia Plath's 1957 poem "Snakecharmer" and Willard Elliot's 1975 composition The Snake Charmer for Alto Flute and Orchestra were inspired by Rousseau's painting.

The painting inspired Australian artist Brett-Livingstone Strong's painting Homage to Henri Rousseau, which is recognisable as the album cover of the 1987 Fleetwood Mac album Tango in the Night. The painting was also used as cover art for the 2000 novel Merrick by Ann Rice, Darwin’s Dangerous idea by Daniel C. Dennett, Origins of the Modern Mind by Merlin Donald, and Gaia by James E. Lovelock.

References

1. The Dream (Rousseau)
2. Snake charmer (disambiguation)
3. Henri Rousseau
4. Tango in the Night
5. The Mosquito Coast (novel)
6. Nala Damajanti
7. The Muse Inspiring the Poet
8. Merrick (novel)
9. Edward Said
10. Belle Époque
11. Sonia Delaunay
12. Gare d'Orsay
13. History of the nude in art
14. 1907 in art
15. Musée d'Orsay
16. André Breton
17. Hendrik Hofmeyr