![Henri Rousseau - Luxembourg Gardens, Monument to Chopin [1909]](http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3943/15317486060_aaf74a1441_o.jpg)
Rousseau's best known paintings depict jungle scenes, even though he never left France or saw a jungle. Stories spread by admirers that his army service included the French expeditionary force to Mexico are unfounded. His inspiration came from illustrated books and the botanical gardens in Paris, as well as tableaux of stuffed wild animals. He had also met soldiers, during his term of service, who had survived the French expedition to Mexico and listened to their stories of the subtropical country they had encountered. To the critic Arsène Alexandre, he described his frequent visits to the Jardin des Plantes: "When I go into the glass houses and I see the strange plants of exotic lands, it seems to me that I enter into a dream."
[Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg - Oil on canvas, 38 x 47 cm]