Hi Roy,
Personally, I like Rousseau's work very much (and I was not brainwashed by any “promotion” of the artist), but this was not my point. I think you misunderstood my post, as I was NOT saying, far from it, that his paintings (at least the ones with the above subject matter, i.e. jungles) were better than anything that was being done by some Balinese artists. I was only saying that, given my "soft spot" for Rousseau, I was overwhelmed by what was being done in Ubud, when I first came there, in the early 1980s.
It does not take much analysis to know why. As I wrote above, it was all in the style: large canvases, pictures on a flat space, without one point perspective, extravagant, unreal “jungle” scenes. And furthermore, I was not even talking about the works of famous painters, such as I Nyoman Meja (I don't know anything about Anak Agung Gede Tjukit), but about the many anonymous, lowly Ubud artists, whose works may not have been recognized by the “intelligencia” in the art world. I was like a kid in a candy factory…or as you say, I was "salivating" over their works. (By the way, I don’t know of any painting by Meja, which is in Rousseau’s style).
As for “who influence who?” one should remember that no man is an island. Since the beginning, in all the different fields of human endeavor, including painting, starting with the cave paintings of Lascaux, it has been a continuum, an endless development. There is no question about Rousseau’s influence on several generations of vanguard painters, starting with Picasso and including Léger, Beckmann and the Surrealists.
I believe you are in a good position to know about the “promotion, or the gallery behind the artist.” I seem to remember that you said you had, at one time or another, a gallery in Boston? For me, I am well aware of the kind of “politics” that goes on in the field, as my first wife, who was a professional painter, experienced it first hand. And it’s “ditto” in the field of writing, where the “gallery” is now replaced by the “editor.” I would add that this “promotion, or the gallery behind the artist,” applies equally to any "famous" painter, including Meja.
PS. I am sure you know, but for the benefit of others who may not be aware, Rousseau was a self-taught painter. His moniker, “le Douanier,” refers to the fact that he was making a living as a customs inspector. He painted his “jungles” without ever leaving Paris, and the only jungles and wild animals that he saw were at the Jardin des Plantes (The Paris Botanical Garden).
