Naïve Art

Art by painters without academic training, or who paint as if they had none, in a direct, detailed and childlike way. Henri Rousseau, a Paris customs officer, painted dreamlike jungles that the avant-garde adored; Niko Pirosmani painted Georgian feasts and animals on black oilcloth; Séraphine Louis painted ecstatic flowers; Grandma Moses painted American farm life; Ivan Generalić and the Hlebine school painted Croatian villages; Maria Prymachenko painted fantastic beasts. Perspective is flattened, colours bright, details lovingly listed, and the effect is often both innocent and strange.

How to tell it apart: flat perspective, stiff frontal figures, bright colour and every leaf painted; deliberate primitivism (Gauguin, Larionov) is bolder and more stylised.

404 works in the quiz. Play a round on Naïve Art.

Artists

Frida Kahlo · Paul Gauguin · L. S. Lowry · Grandma Moses · Henri Rousseau · Jean Dubuffet · Horace Pippin · Niko Pirosmani · Séraphine Louis · Edward Hicks · Olga Rozanova · Maria Prymachenko · Ivan Generalić

Best-known works

“When Will You Marry?” — Paul Gauguin, 1892
“The Sleeping Gypsy” — Henri Rousseau, 1897
“The Broken Column” — Frida Kahlo, 1944
“Tiger in a Tropical Storm” — Henri Rousseau, 1891
“La encantadora de serpientes” — Henri Rousseau, 1907
“The Yellow Christ” — Paul Gauguin, 1889
“Aha Oe Feii?” — Paul Gauguin, 1892
“Myself: Portrait – Landscape” — Henri Rousseau, 1890
“Nevermore” — Paul Gauguin, 1897
“Eu haere ia oe” — Paul Gauguin, 1893
“Tahitian Woman with a Flower” — Paul Gauguin, 1891
“Matamoe (Death), Landscape with Peacocks” — Paul Gauguin, 1892
“Sacred Spring: Sweet Dreams (Nave nave moe)” — Paul Gauguin, 1894
“The Dream” — Henri Rousseau, 1910
“The Muse Inspiring the Poet” — Henri Rousseau, 1909
“The Great Buddah” — Paul Gauguin, 1899
“Carnival Evening” — Henri Rousseau, 1886
“Vairumati tei oa” — Paul Gauguin, 1892
“Still life with parrots” — Paul Gauguin, 1902
“Jug in the form of a Head, Self-portrait” — Paul Gauguin, 1889
“Arearea no varua ino” — Paul Gauguin, 1894
“The Bunch of Flowers” — Paul Gauguin, 1891
“The Football Players” — Henri Rousseau, 1908
“Conversation (Les Parau Parau)” — Paul Gauguin, 1891
“Merahi metua no Tehamana” — Paul Gauguin, 1893
“Pastorales tahitiennes” — Paul Gauguin, 1892
“Landscape, Horse on the Road” — Paul Gauguin, 1899
“Jaguar Attacking a Horse” — Henri Rousseau, 1910
“Two Tahitian Women” — Paul Gauguin, 1899
“Scene from Tahitian Life” — Paul Gauguin, 1896