Raphael: Sublime Poetry

Metropolitan Museum of Art

March 29 to June 28, 2026

 Raphael: Sublime Poetry will be the first comprehensive, international loan exhibition in the United States on Raphael (Raffaello di Giovanni Santi; 1483–1520), considered one of the greatest artists of all time. This landmark exhibition will explore the full breadth of his life and career, from his origins in Urbino to his prolific years in Florence, where he began to emerge as a peer to Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, to his final decade at the papal court in Rome. Bringing together more than 200 of Raphael’s most important drawings, paintings, tapestries, and decorative arts from public and private collections around the world, the exhibition will offer a fresh perspective on this defining figure of the Italian Renaissance, presenting his renowned masterpieces alongside rarely seen treasures to reveal an extraordinarily creative mind.

“This unprecedented exhibition will offer a groundbreaking look at the brilliance and legacy of Raphael, a true titan of the Italian Renaissance,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. “Visitors will have an exceptionally rare opportunity to experience the breathtaking range of his creative genius through some of the artist’s most iconic and seldom loaned works from around the globe—many never before shown together.”

Among the highlights will be The Virgin and Child with Infant Saint John the Baptist in a Landscape (The Alba Madonna) from the National Gallery of Art, one of the most emblematic examples of Raphael’s mastery over High Renaissance ideals of harmony and classical beauty, which will be united with his preparatory drawings from the Museum of Fine Arts, Lille, 

and Portrait of Baldassarre Castiglione, now in the Louvre, widely regarded as one of the greatest portraits of the High Renaissance.

Lenders include the Accademia Carrara (Bergamo), Albertina (Vienna), Ashmolean Museum (Oxford), British Museum (London), Galleria Borghese (Rome), Gallerie Nazionali Barberini Corsini (Rome), The Duke of Devonshire and Trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement (Chatsworth), Galleria Nazionale delle Marche (Urbino), Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria (Perugia), Kupferstichkabinett (Berlin), Louvre (Paris), Fondazione Brescia Musei (Brescia), National Gallery (London), National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.), Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Palais des Beaux-Arts (Lille), Patrimonio Nacional de España (Madrid), Pinacoteca Comunale of Città di Castello, Pinacoteca Nazionale (Bologna), Prado (Madrid), Städel Museum (Frankfurt), Szépmüvészeti Múzeum (Budapest), Gallerie degli Uffizi (Florence), and the Vatican Museums, among others.

“The seven-year journey of putting together this exhibition has been an extraordinary chance to reframe my understanding of this monumental artist,” said Carmen Bambach, the Marica F. and Jan T. Vilcek Curator in The Met’s Department of Drawings and Prints. “It is a thrilling opportunity to engage with his unique artistic personality through the visual power, intellectual depth, and tenderness of his imagery.

Though he lived a mere 37 years, Raphael achieved such profound success as a painter, designer, and architect that he was regarded as the pinnacle of artistic perfection for centuries after his death. The son of a painter and poet, Raphael engaged with the foremost writers and thinkers of his age in Rome, displaying a poetic sensibility that captivated his peers and generations that followed. Matching ambition with lyricism, he created works with both intellectual heft and emotional depth, a necessary skill in the complex political landscape of Renaissance courts.

The exhibition will unfold roughly chronologically, tracing Raphael’s life and career, with thematic sections focused on the development of his ideas and imagery. Recent scientific discoveries will also be incorporated. By featuring drawings in relationship to paintings and works in other media, the presentation will demonstrate Raphael’s prodigious versatility and creative process. The figural compositions in his paintings, drawings, tapestry designs, and prints reveal him to be an unparalleled storyteller, and this exhibition will pay particular attention to his portrayal of women—from his pioneering use of nude female models to his sensitive portrayals of the Madonna and Child.

Credits and Related Content

Raphael: Sublime Poetry is curated by Carmen C. Bambach, the Marica F. and Jan T. Vilcek Curator in the Department of Drawings and Prints at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A fully illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition and be available for purchase from The Met Store.

Elaine: The Collection of Elaine Wynn

 Christie's has announce Elaine: The Collection of Elaine Wynn, which will be showcased during the Fall Marquee Week of Sales this November. The formidable collection reflects the unmatched aesthetic sensibility and incomparable taste of Mrs. Wynn, with examples by art historical icons spanning centuries and geographies. The artworks come from Mrs. Wynn's Los Angeles, Las Vegas and New York homes and will be presented across the week of sale as leading highlights, with nine works in the 20th Century Evening Sale, two works in the 21st Century Evening Sale, and subsequent works in the Post-War and Contemporary Art Day Sale. In total, the collection is estimated to realize in excess of $75 million.

Gillian Wynn remarks: “My mother celebrated every piece that she collected. She felt privileged to live with each and every one, but always understood that she was merely a temporary custodian. Good art moves and provokes us and then must live on to do the same for others.” 

Kevyn Wynn continues: “Our mother lived a life filled with passion, conviction and grace. She had uncompromising standards and we have every confidence that Christie's will uphold her vision and legacy.”

The collection's offerings represent a richly diverse array of artistic icons, encompassing the finest of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. The earliest painting in the group is a luminous view by Joseph Mallord William Turner, Ehrenbreitstein, or The Bright Stone of Honour and the Tomb of Marceau, from Byron's Childe Harold, (estimate $12-18 million). First shown in an 1835 exhibition at the Royal Academy, the painting has been widely exhibited at leading institutions around the world for centuries and is counted among the artist's most important late masterpieces.

Another rare jewel within the collection—painted more than 150 years after the Turner— is Lucian Freud's The Painter Surprised by a Naked Admirer (estimate $15-25 million), an extraordinarily ambitious canvas completed by the artist in 2005 at the age of 82. 

Further highlights include canonical paintings Ocean Park #40 by Richard Diebenkorn (estimate $15-25 million) 

and Sunflower V by Joan Mitchell (estimate $12-18 million), two singular examples from the oeuvres of iconic American abstractionists, hailing from cities thousands of miles apart.

Max Carter, Christie's Vice Chairman, 20th and 21st Century Art, remarks, “Elaine Wynn's collecting was guided by the same curiosity, passion and style that marked her profound legacies in business and philanthropy. Her interests spanned over 150 years, from Turner's poetic masterpiece, Ehrenbreitstein, to Freud's culminant self-portrait; from Seurat's exquisite Parisian view to perhaps Richard Diebenkorn's most beautiful Ocean Park #40; from Joan Mitchell's breathtaking Sunflower V to Olga de Amaral. Ms. Wynn was one-of-a-kind and we could not be more honored to work with her family and to celebrate her collection and example this fall at Christie's.”

Sonya Roth, Deputy Chairman, Christie's West Coast, remarks, “It is a true honor to work with Kevyn and Gillian in paying tribute to the legacy of their mother, Elaine Wynn. Mrs. Wynn was a visionary collector who stands among the most generous patrons of our time. Her tireless support for art institutions and educational organizations across the United States has had a deep and meaningful impact on countless lives. We are humbled to steward this inimitable collection at Christie's.”

Art and Life in Rembrandt’s Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection

 

The Norton Museum of Art has announcd the exhibition Art and Life in Rembrandt’s Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection, a presentation of more than 70 works by 27 artists from The Leiden Collection — one of the world’s most important private collections of 17th-century Dutch art. On view from October 25, 2025, through April 5, 2026, it will be the largest show of privately held Dutch 17th-century paintings ever organized in the United States.

Envisioned to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the Dutch founding of New Amsterdam on the island of present-day Manhattan, the exhibition at the Norton will draw from The Leiden Collection’s unique strength, namely the depiction of humanity in all its facets — from portraits and character studies to genre scenes and historical subjects. It will also offer a rare opportunity to contemplate exceptional works spanning the full career arc of the groundbreaking Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn. With 17 of Rembrandt’s paintings on display throughout the galleries, the exhibition will reveal the renowned artist’s singular ability to capture human expression and emotion, as well as fascinating evolutions in both his style and technique.

Organized thematically, Art and Life in Rembrandt’s Time will invite visitors to explore the breadth of the painters’ skill and the timeless resonance of their works, as well as to learn more about the day-to-day activities of citizens from that period. Through the prism of the 17th-century Netherlands and its leading artists, the exhibition will shed light on a crucial era of innovation in the history of art. Indeed, the creative breakthroughs and transformative impact of Rembrandt and his peers can still be felt today, having altered the trajectory of art from Impressionism and Expressionism, all the way through to modern and contemporary movements.

“One of the most remarkable facts about Rembrandt and his circle is that their artworks continue to connect with audiences, hundreds of years after they were painted,” said Elizabeth Nogrady, Curator of The Leiden Collection. “These artists had an uncanny ability to tap into the continuity of human experience, which makes them continually relevant — even in very different times.”

The exhibition reflects The Leiden Collection’s mission of building bridges through art and will follow its blockbuster shows at some of the most prestigious national museums in the world including the Louvre, the Pushkin and Hermitage museums, the National Museum of China, and Louvre Abu Dhabi.

“An exhibition like Art and Life in Rembrandt’s Time has never been seen before in our region. Viewers will be enthralled not only by the artistry of Rembrandt, but also the depth of talent of other 17th-century Dutch artists,” said Ghislain d’Humières, Kenneth C. Griffin Director and CEO of the Norton Museum of Art. “It is an honor to host this impressive exhibition at the Norton, the first of its kind in America.”

See images below

Of considerable prominence in the exhibition will be Rembrandt’s magisterial Minerva in Her Study, 1635, the most important of Rembrandt’s history paintings in a private collection; the master’s exquisite oval Young Girl in a Gold-Trimmed Cloak, 1632; and his Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes, 1634, which presents a young Rembrandt staring directly at the viewer. 

Special highlights include Vermeer’s Young Woman Seated at a Virginal, circa 1670 – 1675 — the sole example of the artist’s work in private hands, which was featured in the Rijksmuseum’s transcendent show of 2023, Vermeer — and Hagar and the Angel, circa 1645, the only privately-held painting remaining of Carel Fabritius — Rembrandt’s greatest pupil and the inspiration for Donna Tartt’s 2013 acclaimed novel The Goldfinch. 

The exhibition will also showcase works by other Amsterdam artists intimately connected to Rembrandt, including his influential teacher, Pieter Lastman, and talented students such as Ferdinand Bol, Govaert Flinck, and Arent de Gelder.

Additional treasures in the exhibition include formal and fantastical portraits, scenes of markets, music-making, biblical[GU1] [EA2]  stories, labor, play, and other dynamic subjects by various artists from the Dutch city of Leiden. 

Prominent works include Jan Lievens’ Boy in a Cape and Turban, circa 1631, depicting a youth wearing a luminous, fanciful costume, and his ravishing Self-Portrait, circa 1629 – 1630; Gabriel Metsu’s monumental Woman Selling Game from a Stall, circa 1653 – 1654; Frans van Mieris’ profoundly evocative Traveler at Rest, circa 1657, capturing a confident young man relaxing on the roadside; and magnificent works by Jan Steen including his joyful Self-Portrait with a Lute, circa 1664 and most solemn Prayer Before the Meal, 1660, of a pious family breaking bread. Also represented in the show will be painters who worked in other Dutch artistic centers, among them Hendrick ter Brugghen in Utrecht, Frans Hals in Haarlem, and Gerard ter Borch in Zwolle.

The Leiden Collection, assembled over the past two decades by Thomas S. Kaplan and his wife, Daphne Recanati Kaplan, comprises more than 220 paintings and drawings by many of the finest Dutch 17th-century artists. Named after Rembrandt van Rijn’s native city, The Leiden Collection illuminates the personalities and themes that shaped Dutch art over five generations.

“Since the day Daphne and I founded The Leiden Collection, we conceived of it as a lending library for some of the world’s most consequential artists,” said Thomas Kaplan. “After nearly 15 years of anonymous lending to over 80 museums, armed with a message of Rembrandt as ‘The Universal Artist,’ the Collection has spent the better part of the past decade traveling the world. We are particularly thrilled to be the first to share Rembrandt and Vermeer with my home state of Florida, where I spent a truly wonderful part of my youth. We hope visitors will be as moved as we are by the enduring power of Rembrandt, his students, and his peers.”

The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated, 150-page catalogue with detailed entries on each painting and an exploration of Dutch life in the 17^th century.

 Art and Life in Rembrandt’s Time: Masterpieces from The Leiden Collection was jointly organized by The Leiden Collection, New York, and the Norton Museum of Art. Curated by Elizabeth Nogrady, Curator, The Leiden Collection; Robert Evren, Consulting Curator for European Art, and J. Rachel Gustafson, Chief Curatorial Operations & Research Officer, the Norton Museum of Art.

Visit the Museum’s website at Norton.org or connect on Instagram and Facebook.

ABOUT THE LEIDEN COLLECTION

The Leiden Collection, founded in 2003 by Franco-American collector Dr. Thomas S. Kaplan and his wife, Daphne Recanati Kaplan, comprises some 220 paintings and drawings and represents one of the largest and most important assemblages of 17th-century Dutch paintings in private hands. The Collection is named after Rembrandt’s native city in honor of the artist’s transcendence and focuses on the works of Rembrandt and his followers, illuminating the personalities and themes that shaped the time period over five generations. The Collection is the most comprehensive representation of the Leiden artists known as fijnschilders (“fine manner painters”), who concentrated on painting portraits, genre scenes, and history paintings. To learn more, please visit theleidencollection.com — home to an extensive online catalogue and scholarly resource that features detailed entries on each painting, biographies of artists, and essays by leading scholars.

Images 

Carel Fabritius, Hagar and the Angel, ca. 1645. Oil on canvas, 157.5 x 136 cm. Courtesy of The Leiden Collection.

Frans van Mieris, A Young Woman Feeding a Parrot, 1663. Oil on panel, 22.4 x 17.7cm. Courtesy of The Leiden Collection.

Frans van Mieris, Traveler at Rest, ca. 1657. Oil on copper, 21.6 x 17.8 cm. Courtesy of The Leiden Collection.

Gerard ter Borch the Younger, Elegant Man, ca. 1660. Oil on canvas, 46.8 x 36.5 cm. Courtesy of The Leiden Collection.

Gerard ter Borch the Younger, Elegant Woman, ca. 1660. Oil on canvas, 46.8 x 36.5 cm. Courtesy of The Leiden Collection.

Gerrit Dou, Cat Crouching on the Ledge of an Artist’s Atelier, 1657. Oil on panel, 34 x 26.9 cm. Courtesy of The Leiden Collection.

Gerrit Dou, Herring Seller and Boy, ca. 1664. Oil on panel, 43.5 x 34.5 cm. Courtesy of The Leiden Collection.

Hendrick ter Brugghen, Allegory of Faith, ca. 1626. Oil on canvas, 72.3 x 56.3 cm. Courtesy of The Leiden Collection.

Jacob Ochtervelt, Singing Violinist, ca. 1666-70. Oil on panel, 26.9 x 19.5 cm. Courtesy of The Leiden Collection.

Jans Lievens, Card Players, ca. 1625. Oil on canvas, 97.5 x 105.4 cm. Courtesy of The Leiden Collection.

Johannes Vermeer, Young Woman Seated at a Virginal, ca. 1670-75. Oil on canvas, 25.5 x 20.1 cm. Courtesy of The Leiden Collection.

Pieter van Laer, Self-Portrait with Magic Scene, ca. 1635-37. Oil on canvas, 80 x 114.9 cm. Courtesy of The Leiden Collection.

Rembrandt van Rijn and Workshop, Man with a Sword, 1644. Oil on canvas, 102.23 x 88.9 cm. Courtesy of The Leiden Collection.

Rembrandt van Rijn, Minerva in Her Study, 1635. Oil on canvas, 138 x 116.5 cm. Courtesy of The Leiden Collection.

Rembrandt van Rijn, Self-Portrait with Shaded Eyes, 1634. Oil on panel, 71.1 x 56 cm. Courtesy of The Leiden Collection.

Rembrandt van Rijn, Unconscious Patient (Allegory of Smell), ca. 1624- 25. Oil on panel, inset into an eighteenth-century panel, 21.5 x 17.7 cm (31.8 x 25.4 cm with eighteenth- century additions). Courtesy of The Leiden Collection.

Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets

 

Barnes Foundation 

October 19, 2025–February 22, 2026

Musée de l’Orangerie 

March 24 to July 20, 2026

In fall 2025, the Barnes Foundation presents Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets, a landmark exhibition of paintings by the self-taught artist Henri Rousseau (1844–1910), featuring works from the Barnes collection and museums around the world.

Building on a comprehensive research study, this exhibition unites important paintings for the first time and connects collections separated for more than a century.

With 18 paintings by Rousseau, the Barnes is home to the world’s largest collection of works by the artist, and the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, with 11, is home to the second largest collection. This exhibition brings together these important collections, providing an unprecedented opportunity to see works that the French art dealer Paul Guillaume either owned—now in the Orangerie’s collection—or sold to Dr. Barnes. Some of these paintings will be reunited for the first time in more than 100 years, while others have never been exhibited together.

Co-curated by Christopher Green, consulting curator, professor emeritus at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and Nancy Ireson, Deputy Director for Collections and Exhibitions & Gund Family Chief Curator at the Barnes, with the support of Juliette Degennes, curator at the Musée de l’Orangerie, Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets is on view in the Roberts Gallery from October 19, 2025, through February 22, 2026. The exhibition is sponsored by Morgan Stanley and Comcast NBCUniversal.

Exceptional loans from major museums, including The Sleeping Gypsy from the Museum of Modern Art, New York, make this exhibition the most significant presentation of Rousseau’s work in decades. With 60 works on view, it will also be the largest US presentation of his art since 2006. For the first time ever, three of Rousseau’s major works will appear in the same space: The Sleeping Gypsy (1897, MoMA), Unpleasant Surprise (1899–1901, the Barnes), and The Snake Charmer (1907, Musée d’Orsay, Paris). Not even the artist himself witnessed this grouping, since by the time he made The Snake Charmer, The Sleeping Gypsy was no longer in his possession.

Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets offers a unique opportunity to learn more about one of the most popular, yet least understood, modern artists. New technical study of the Rousseau works at the Barnes has provided fresh insight into how and why the artist painted in such a distinctive way. In close collaboration with Christopher Green, the Barnes’s conservation team has transformed our understanding of Rousseau’s approach. This in-depth research—conducted between 2021 and 2024—resulted in many discoveries, including five underlying paintings, eight reworked compositions, and revised dating of five paintings. Green proposed, and exacting conservation work confirmed, that two seemingly unrelated paintings were created simultaneously by Rousseau as part of a competition to decorate a town hall in the suburbs of Paris.

The exhibition and accompanying catalogue invite visitors to look beyond the myths that surrounded Rousseau after his death—when many critics characterized the painter as naive and uneducated—to discover an artist who engaged with modern life and thought deeply about what might appeal to potential buyers. Themes of the exhibition include “Capturing Community,” which highlights Rousseau’s paintings for and of his neighbors, who held jobs as small business owners, shopkeepers, and clerks, and “Playing to the Crowd,” a spectacular selection of jungle paintings from his later years, when he was celebrated by progressive painters in Paris and beyond. These themes and more are explored in greater detail in the catalogue’s essays, by Ireson, Degennes, and Martha Lucy, deputy director for research, interpretation and education at the Barnes.

“Dr. Barnes’s lasting fascination with the work of Henri Rousseau compelled him to purchase 18 paintings by the artist between 1923 and 1929, making ours the largest collection of Rousseau paintings in the world,” says Thom Collins, Neubauer Family Executive Director and President of the Barnes. “We are proud to partner with the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, on this landmark exhibition, which brings works from the two preeminent Rousseau collections together for the first time, alongside important paintings from around the world. Reflecting the expansion of the Barnes’s educational program and emphasizing the historical and cultural context of individual works of art, A Painter’s Secrets will delight amateurs and experts alike. With technical study as a cornerstone of the project, the Barnes once again demonstrates its commitment to conservation research. We are thrilled to share new discoveries about Rousseau’s work and practice with an international audience.”

Rousseau, though ridiculed by critics during his lifetime, was eventually lauded as a self-taught genius, and his work influenced many avant-garde artists. His biography reveals that he was not afraid to take risks. He held a position in the French civil service, in a role that imposed tariffs on goods entering Paris. He began making art while on the job and left his position in 1893 at age 51 to pursue a career as a professional artist. With a modest pension for income, he sought a market for his art, working in different genres and soliciting a variety of patrons in his quest to make a living. He experimented with subject matter over time: jungle scenes—which he created by studying the plants and taxidermied animals in Paris’s natural history museums—landscapes, portraits, and still lifes.

Rousseau’s life was full of contradictions: he was a firm believer in the secular French state who followed Spiritualism, and a convicted fraudster who—when it suited his purposes—was happy to play the innocent. Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets considers how the artist’s paradoxical life shaped his art and practice to reveal an artist who responded to the world around him in the hope of furthering his career. The exhibition and accompanying catalogue reveal the tensions in his life and emphasize the equally inconsistent qualities of his painting style. This project considers his novel practice and examines how he created a memorable, and often fabricated, image of himself. It also reveals how he painted with viewers in mind, changing his works and his story to suit their preferences.

“We hope that visitors will gain a rich understanding of Henri Rousseau as an artist through exploring the exhibition’s thematic sections, each of which illuminates a different facet of his complex and fascinating story,” say Green and Ireson. “We invite visitors to enjoy the artist’s enigmatic paintings, while considering their meaning in the light of his personal story. We are particularly excited to bring together three paintings for the very first time: The Sleeping Gypsy (1897), Unpleasant Surprise (1899–1901), and The Snake Charmer (1907). This grouping brings to light how successfully Rousseau and his paintings have kept their secrets and points to how the artist became a major figure in the history of modernism.”

Notably, Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets marks the first occasion works from the Barnes collection will be shown in a monographic exhibition. Creating space for new conversations between works—a critical aspect of education, research, and public access—the exhibition will provide visitors a rare opportunity to temporarily experience Rousseau paintings from the Barnes alongside works from esteemed institutional and private collections around the world. Following its opening at the Barnes, the exhibition will travel to the Musée de l’Orangerie in 2026, marking the first time paintings from the Barnes collection will be presented at another institution in almost 40 years.

The exhibition features 59 paintings and one lithograph, from the Barnes, the Musée de l’Orangerie, and more than 20 collections from cities around the world, including Chicago, London, New York, Switzerland, and Tokyo. Exhibition highlights include:

• The Sleeping Gypsy (La bohémienne endormie) (1897), on loan from the Museum of Modern Art, New York. This major canvas of a sleeping woman, a lion, and a mandolin in a moonlit desert landscape has not been exhibited outside MoMA for decades.

• The Past and the Present, or Philosophical Thought (Le passé et le présent, ou Pensée philosophique) (1899), from the Barnes collection, depicts the artist and his second wife on their wedding day. Images of the couple’s deceased spouses float above their heads, as if to bless the union. Rousseau often posed his subjects outdoors, surrounded by plants—both real and imagined. The term he coined for this genre was “portrait-landscapes.”

• The Snake Charmer (La charmeuse de serpents) (1907), from the Musée d’Orsay, Paris, was Rousseau’s first large commission and was exhibited at the 1907 Salon d'Automne.

• Scouts Attacked by a Tiger (Éclaireurs attaqués par un tigre) (1904), from the Barnes collection, was painted during the French colonial period, when such works were popular with Parisian audiences for their theatrical presentation of faraway territories.
  

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Henri Rousseau (French, 1844–1910) produced some of the most original and recognizable artworks of the modern era. A self-taught artist who began painting later in life, Rousseau had a unique vision that is perhaps best exemplified in his jungle scenes. These captivating tableaux, based largely on visits to the Jardin des Plantes in Paris, are vivid, lush, and often unsettling in the exoticism of the imaginary worlds they portray. Rousseau’s visual world was influenced by everything he encountered, from postcards and early cinema to everyday scenes in the streets and parks of Paris. He was celebrated during his lifetime by Pablo Picasso and other modernist contemporaries who recognized his contribution in opening up new realms of artistic possibility. Adapted from Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris (New York: Abrams, 2006)

ABOUT THE CO-CURATORS
Christopher Green, FBA, is professor emeritus at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London. He is the author and editor of numerous volumes, including Cubism and Its Enemies (1987), which was the recipient of the Mitchell Prize for 20th-century art; Juan Gris (1993); Art in France, 1900–1940 (2000); Picasso’s ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’ (2001);Picasso: Architecture and Vertigo (2005); and Cubism and War: The Crystal in the Flame (2016). His newest book, Cubism and Reality: Braque, Picasso, Gris, will be published in September 2025. He has also curated and co-curated many notable exhibitions, including Henri Rousseau: Jungles in Paris (Tate Modern, 2005).

Nancy Ireson, PhD, is Deputy Director for Collections and Exhibitions & Gund Family Chief Curator at the Barnes. Exhibitions she has curated or co-curated include Modigliani Up Close (Barnes, 2022), Suzanne Valadon: Model, Painter, Rebel (Barnes, 2021), Elijah Pierce’s America(Barnes, 2020), Picasso 1932: Love, Fame, Tragedy (Tate Modern, 2018), Modigliani (Tate Modern, 2017), Temptation! The Demons of James Ensor (Art Institute of Chicago, 2014), and Cézanne’s Card Players (Courtauld Gallery, 2010). At the Barnes, she manages the teams responsible for collections and exhibitions, including curatorial, conservation, registration, and publications. Prior to joining the Barnes, she held curatorial positions at Tate Modern, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the National Gallery, London.

CATALOGUE

Distributed for the Barnes Foundation by Yale University Press, the publication Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets offers a comprehensive study of the 18 works at the Barnes and places them in dialogue with works from around the globe, including those from art dealer Paul Guillaume’s collection, now housed at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris. Edited by Christopher Green and Nancy Ireson with contributions by Barbara Buckley, Juliette Degennes, Martha Lucy, Mina Porell, and Anya Shutova, the catalogue is an unprecedented overview of the artist’s work that considers paintings that have been apart for more than 100 years.

Green, Ireson, and Barnes conservation staff consider Rousseau’s novel artistic practice and explore his process of adapting works to new purposes. They also examine how Rousseau navigated the art world, driven by the need to market his works in the hope of furthering his career. Richly illustrated with Rousseau’s idiosyncratic jungle scenes, landscapes, portraits, and still lifes, this volume presents new findings and includes novel essays that discuss the market for the artist in the 1920s and the veiled eroticism of the painter’s jungle scenes. The Musée de l’Orangerie will publish a French version of the catalogue.

EXHIBITION ORGANIZATION
Developed in partnership with the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets is curated by Christopher Green, consulting curator, professor emeritus at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, and Nancy Ireson, Deputy Director for Collections and Exhibitions & Gund Family Chief Curator at the Barnes.

Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets is on view at the Barnes from October 19, 2025, to February 22, 2026, and at the Musée de l’Orangerie from March 24 to July 20, 2026.