Theodore Rousseau (Paris, April 15, 1812 – December 22, 1867) was a French painter of the Barbizon school. Rousseau's pictures are always grave in character, with an air of exquisite melancholy which is powerfully attractive to the lover of landscapes. They are well finished when they profess to be completed pictures, but Rousseau spent so long a time in working up his subjects that his absolutely completed works are comparatively few. He left many canvases with only parts of the picture realized.
He was elected president of the fine art jury for the 1867 Exposition; however, his disappointment at being passed over in the distribution of the higher awards told seriously on his health, and in August he was seized with paralysis. He slightly recovered, but was again attacked several times during the autumn. Finally, in November, he began to sink, and he died, in the presence of his lifelong friend, Jean-Francois Millet, on December 22, 1867. Millet, the peasant painter, for whom Rousseau had the highest regard, had been much with him during the last years of his life, and at his death Millet took charge of Rousseau's insane wife.
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