The Sleeping Gypsy

Rousseau paints a sleeping Romany woman in a moonlit desert landscape, while a lion quietly approaches and sniffs her, creating a dreamlike scene that blends mystery and stillness. With its simplified forms, bold blocks of color, and fantastical atmosphere, the work is one of Rousseau’s most celebrated paintings. It is often linked to the artist's observations of animals and colonial displays in Paris.

After Rousseau unsuccessfully tried to sell the painting to the mayor of his hometown of Laval, it entered the private collection of a Parisian charcoal merchant, where it remained until 1924. It passed through additional private collections before Olga Guggenheim purchased it in 1939. She donated it to the Museum of Modern Art in New York, where it remains today.