The Sleeping Gypsy, Henri Rousseau T-Shirt

The Sleeping Gypsy (La Bohémienne Endormie) is an 1897 oil painting by French Naïve artist Henri Rousseau. The fantastical depiction of a lion musing over a sleeping woman on a moonlit night is one of the most recognisable artworks of modern times. Henri Rousseau (1844 – 1910) was a French Post-Impressionist painter in the Naive or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier (the customs officer), a humourous description of his occupation as a tax collector. Ridiculed during his life, he came to be recognised as a self-taught genius whose works are of high artistic quality.