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Henri Rousseau

b. 1844, Laval, France; d. 1910, Paris

The Football Players, 1908

Oil on canvas

A toll clerk by profession, Rousseau only began to paint seriously in his forties. Critics lambasted the untrained artist's stylized images of faraway places (he had never traveled outside France), yet the Parisian avant-garde celebrated his innovative technique. In The Football Players, executed only two years before Rousseau died a pauper, he attempted to illustrate modern times by depicting its latest new sport, rugby.

Interest in open-air sporting activities had been revived in France, partly due to English influence, with rugby among the new ball games reserved for the elite. Eccentrically clad in striped sports costumes, Rousseau's players clearly toss a rugby ball, yet the title of the painting references European football, or soccer, which had become more accessible to the working classes and flourished in urban centers. The work has a militaristic quality as well; sports not only were seen as a means of focusing youthful energy but also coincided with a nationalist resurgence in France in the 1910s.