Britannica
Sources used in this answer
What kind of work did Henri Rousseau do before becoming a full-time painter?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Henri Rousseau
Myself: Portrait-Landscape, oil on canvas by Henri Rousseau, 1890; in the National Gallery, Prague. 146 × 113 cm.
Before becoming a full-time painter, Henri Rousseau served in the military for four years. Following his service, he settled in Paris in 1868 and began a career as a petty official. By 1871, he was working as a tax collector in the Paris toll office, a position that earned him the nickname le Douanier ("the Customs Officer"), even though the office did not perform actual customs functions. He continued to work as a bureaucrat while painting in his spare time until he retired from the toll house in 1893 to dedicate himself entirely to his art.1