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How long did Henri Rousseau serve in the military?
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Henri Rousseau
Myself: Portrait-Landscape, oil on canvas by Henri Rousseau, 1890; in the National Gallery, Prague. 146 × 113 cm.
Henri Rousseau served in the military for four years. During his term of service, he met soldiers who had participated in the French expedition to Mexico, and their stories served as an inspiration for the exotic landscapes that later became a hallmark of his work as a naive artist. He was eventually released from his service following the death of his father to support his mother.1