The characters in Henri Rousseau's The Sleeping Gypsy inspired Mordicai
Gerstein to create an elegant, beautifully illustrated story about them.
A girl, alone in the desert, lies on the sand and sleeps. But she is not
alone for long. A lizard, a rabbit, a turtle and other animals come to
scrutinize her, and a lion leaps into the scene and claims her for his
own.
A silhouette approaches from the distance. He introduces himself as
Henri Rousseau, the dreamer of this dream, who plans to paint a picture
of it. The animals pose for the artist but criticize his work with
comments like You've made my nose too big. So the artist removes
complainers one by one from the painting, until only the girl and the
lion remain.