The Customs House is a 1900 Post-Impressionist painting by French artist Henri Rousseau.
Analysis of Rousseau’s The Customs Post
French painter Henri Rousseau, famous for having no formal training and for being ignored by the art world early in his career, is thought to have painted The Customs Post around 1900 or so, late in his time as an artist.
Rousseau started his career in the French Army and quickly moved to become a customs official from 1871 to 1893, manning gates just like these in Paris. It was during this time as a customs official when he started experimenting with painting and this work is clearly a look back at his time when he would have been one of the people in this painting, some 20-30 years after the fact.
The Customs Post (40cm x 32cm) is signed in the bottom right of the painting and can be found in the Courtauld Gallery in the Courtauld Institute of Art in London after the famous Courtauld Bequest in 1948.