Henri Rousseau : L'ambition de la peinture

Exhibition at the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, 25 March – 20 July 2026

Known by the nickname Douanier Rousseau, Henri Rousseau (1844–1910) has long been regarded as the foremost of the naïve painters. His ‘portrait-landscapes’, still lifes, Parisian landscapes and imaginary jungles form a unique body of work, already admired in his own time by Apollinaire, Picasso and the Delaunays. After his death, he enjoyed international renown, largely orchestrated by the art dealer Paul Guillaume (1891–1934) and the collector Albert Barnes (1872–1951), who were behind the two most significant collections of Rousseau’s work, now held at the Musée de l’Orangerie and the Barnes Foundation.

Through a series of essays devoted to the painter’s artistic practices, his reception and his network, this exhibition catalogue sheds light on the many facets of an artist who was well aware of his own worth and attentive to the strategies for disseminating his work. It enables us to explore the materiality of the works and to situate them within the context of the modern art market in which Paul Guillaume and Albert Barnes played a major role.