Artist: Henri Rousseau
Created: 1910
Dimensions (cm): 204.5 × 298.5
Format: Oil on canvas
Location: Museum of Modern Art, New York City
Also known as Le Songe or Rêve exotique, The Dream is one of the many Rousseau’s paintings with a jungle theme. It features an almost surreal portrait of Yadwigha (Jadwiga), Rousseau's mistress, lying on the left of the painting, gazing over a jungle landscape. It also portraits a colorful snake charmer playing his flute, barely visible.
Besides being self-taught and starting his career at around 40 years old, Rousseau never traveled outside Paris, so his works are inspired solely by his visits to the city’s natural history museum among other botanical spaces where he felt like entering a dream.