Grade Level: 6-7

While the other paintings in these lessons record actual locations, Rousseau imagined Tropical Forest with Monkeys from trips to botanical gardens, zoos, and illustrations in books. Students will conduct research and imagine themselves in a place other than where they live. They also will investigate the macaque monkey to compare to Rousseau’s depictions.

Curriculum Connections

• Science (ecology)
• Language Arts
• Geography

Materials

• Computers with internet access for student research
• Writing and drawing materials
• Copies of the “Climates Around the World” map

Warm-up Question

While the other paintings in these lessons record actual locations, this is an imaginary place. Rousseau went to botanical gardens and zoos, studied exotic plants and animals, used illustrations in books and his drawings, and used his imagination as inspiration for Tropical Forest with Monkeys. Does anything look imaginary or strange to you?

Background

Henri Rousseau was a toll collector for the city of Paris. This job allowed him to support his wife and nine children and gave him time to pursue his true passion—art. From his post at the tollgates and in strolls through the suburbs of Paris, Rousseau observed the world and filled numerous notebooks with sketches from nature. He also explored the Jardin des Plantes, a botanical garden and zoo in Paris. There, he studied and drew exotic plants and animals. He retired at age forty-nine to become a full-time artist.

In the last months before his death, Rousseau painted Tropical Forest with Monkeys. In this work, lush plants that look like a jungle surround exotic animals. Upon closer inspection, however, we see that the foliage is not a realistic representation of tropical vegetation. Instead, Rousseau took specimens from the Jardin des Plantes as a point of departure, vastly enlarging and changing them to create his jungle. The trees, for example, are magnified ferns. The yellow-orange lotuses rise high above the water; in reality, they should float on the surface.

The animals in the painting are also a mix of reality and imagination. A brown macaque, a kind of monkey, sits on a rock in a stream with a green bamboo like pole under his legs. To its right a row of lotus flowers leads back to two orange gibbon monkeys swinging through the trees. Rousseau added tails to these normally tailless animals. A black and white langur monkey sits on a branch, scratching his head and fishing with a pole. Another black monkey of indeterminate species sits on a branch peering at an enormous snake that slithers among the lotuses, perhaps posing a danger to the monkeys.

The monkeys depicted here inhabit various parts of Asia and Africa and could only come together in a book, zoo, or artist’s imagination. Found in Rousseau’s studio at the time of his death was an illustrated book of exotic animals called Wild Beasts: Approximately 200 Amusing Illustrations Drawn from the Life of Animals, with an Instructive Text. All five primates in the painting were inspired by photographs in this book.

Guided Practice

• Despite Rousseau’s poetic license, his painting can still inform us about the kinds of animals and plants in a tropical forest. What does the painting tell you? What other information do you know about a tropical climate that isn’t illustrated in the painting?
• Look at the “Climates Around the World” map. Where, generally, are rain forests found? (Near the equator.) What is it about that area’s position and climate that would support a rain forest ecosystem? (More exposure to the sun all year, heavy rains every day, hot and humid air.)
• About twenty-five percent of all the medicines used today start from somewhere in the rain forest. Do you know any other natural resources that can be found in a rain forest? (Rubber, chocolate, nuts and fruits, bamboo, coffee, gum, waxes, and lubricants.)
• Tropical forests are disappearing faster than any other ecosystem. Why or how do you think they are being destroyed? What happens when we destroy or pollute these areas? (Lose habitat, rivers dry up changing the geography, runoff from cutting pollutes rivers and kills aquatic life, etc.) What are ways to protect rain forests? 

Activity

Rousseau imagined a world far away from his everyday life in Paris. To help students make personal connections to the lesson theme, ask them to think about a place other than their hometown where they would like to live. Have them research the place and write a report describing its geography, climate, and natural resources. How would their daily lives be different if they lived there? Is a part of the environment there in danger? How could they be good stewards to protect it?

To illustrate their findings, have students fold a large sheet of paper into four sections. In each section, students should draw or paint:

1. the geography of the place,
2. its climate,
3. its natural resources, and
4. a portrait of themselves within the environment.

Extension

Using the reproduction of Henri Rousseau’s Tropical Forest with Monkeys as a starting point, have students research and write a report on the habitat, lifestyle, and eating habits of the macaque monkey. Ask students to compare their findings to the imaginative depiction of the monkey in Rousseau’s painting and include this comparison in their reports.

VA:Cn10.1.6 Generate a collection of ideas reflecting current interests and concerns that could be investigated in art-making.

VA:Cn11.1.7 Analyze how response to art is influenced by understanding the time and place in which it was created, the available resources, and cultural uses.

VA:Cr1.2.6 Formulate an artistic investigation of personally relevant content for creating art.

VA:Cr2.3.7 Apply visual organizational strategies to design and produce a work of art, design, or media that clearly communicates information or ideas.

VA:Re7.1.6 Identify and interpret works of art or design that reveal how people live around the world and what they value. 

VA:Re8.1.6 Interpret art by distinguishing between relevant and non-relevant contextual information and analyzing subject matter, characteristics of form and structure, and use of media to identify ideas and mood conveyed.