Henri Rousseau · 1897

The Sleeping Gypsy

Posters from $15.00 CAD · Canvas from $39.00 CAD

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Rousseau's dreamlike desert scene — a woman sleeps under a full moon while a curious lion sniffs at her side. Self-taught Naïve art at its most haunting.

Up to 24 × 15 in · landscape

Size

Larger sizes are unavailable for this painting because the source scan's resolution wouldn't print at gallery quality.

Format & finish

Archival cotton canvas stretched over a wooden frame. Ready to hang as-is. No external frame.

Scale next to a 5'10" person

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Hand-printed in Ottawa

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Materials & quality

›Canvas & inks

Giclée-printed on archival cotton canvas with fade-resistant pigment inks, hand-stretched over wooden bars. Gallery-wrapped — ready to hang with no extra frame needed.

›Floater frame

Hand-finished solid wood floater frame in five finishes. The canvas sits inside with a clean shadow gap — the way galleries hang contemporary canvas.

›Posters

Premium archival paper — 200 gsm soft matte or 230 gsm vibrant glossy. Ships flat or rolled, ready for your own frame.

›Faithful to the source

Printed from the highest-resolution museum and archive scans available. Each painting's maximum size is capped at what its source scan can support at gallery quality.

About this painting

The story of The Sleeping Gypsy

The Sleeping Gypsy is an 1897 oil on canvas painting by the French Naïve artist Henri Rousseau (1844–1910). It is a fantastical depiction of a lion musing over a sleeping woman on a moonlit night. It is held by the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, to which it was donated by Olga Guggenheim in 1939. In the museum, the painting is housed next to Vincent van Gogh's famous 1889 painting The Starry Night.

Adapted from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the artist

Henri Rousseau

Henri Julien Félix Rousseau was a French post-Impressionist painter in the Naïve or Primitive manner. He was also known as Le Douanier, a humorous description of his occupation as a toll and tax collector. He started painting seriously in his early forties; by age 49, he retired from his job to work on his art full-time.

All Henri Rousseau prints →

Biography adapted from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Frequently asked

The Sleeping Gypsy— questions & answers

›What is the meaning of The Sleeping Gypsy?

It is a fantastical depiction of a lion musing over a sleeping woman on a moonlit night — a dreamlike desert scene by the self-taught Naïve painter Henri Rousseau, and one of the most haunting images of the late 19th century.

›When was The Sleeping Gypsy painted?

Rousseau painted it in oil on canvas in 1897.

›Where is The Sleeping Gypsy now?

It is held by the Museum of Modern Art in New York, donated by Olga Guggenheim in 1939 — where it hangs next to Van Gogh's The Starry Night.

Pairs well with