The Flamingoes

Pink flamingoes wade along the sandy edge of a still lake in Henri Rousseau's "The Flamingoes," their spindly legs mirrored in the calm water. Oversized lilies in yellow, pink, and white drift across the surface, while a row of tall palm trees stands guard behind them like a green curtain. Two small figures rest on a spit of land in the distance, adding a quiet human touch to this hushed, faraway world.

Rousseau never once set foot in a jungle. Working as a customs officer in Paris, he earned the nickname "Le Douanier," and he built these lush scenes from visits to the city's botanical gardens and natural history museum, filling in the rest from his own imagination. That invented quality gives the painting its dreamy charm, with trees arranged in a neat pattern and flowers grown far beyond their natural size.

People in his day often mocked his flat, self-taught style, but younger artists such as Picasso saw something real and daring in it. He is now remembered as a master of naive painting, proof that a vivid inner world can matter more than formal training or a plane ticket.