The Sleeping
Gypsy
By: Henri
Rousseau
Oils on
Canvas
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It has something to do with an Egyptian person. I
can see a lion and a dark skinned person with his
stuff next to him. He is sleeping. There are
mostly dark colors with the exception of the sand
the guys clothes. The media is oils on canvas.

This painting has two focal points. They are the
gypsy’s face and the lion’s face. I really think
that the dark colors and the warm colors are
balanced. They make a sort of sad and dark
mood. The proportions of the colors are normal
and make sense. The painting looks life like. On
the gypsy’s clothes there are stripes that are
repeating, but they are different colors. The artist
uses them to create a happy mood in a place that
is very dark.

I think that the gypsy sleeping in the desert
symbolizes that there are some people that are
poor and have no where to live. The lion is all
the dangers that homeless people face. The artist
wanted the viewer to feel a very serious mood
when looking at the painting. I have seen lots of
people living under bridges so I can look at the
picture and remember all those occasions.
Poverty is a subject we touch in social studies. It
is a big problem world wide

I think that if Henri Rousseau was trying to get
people to think about poverty, he accomplished it.
I can say that this work had a very good and easy
to interpret style. I think it is unique because you
don’t see many artists painting these types of
paintings. To improve the painting, the artist
could have added more details and more symbols
to better help a viewer understand the painting.