The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia has opened a major exhibition, 'Henri Rousseau: A Painter's Secrets,' featuring around sixty works, including the institution's own iconic Rousseau paintings. The survey, co-curated by Nancy Ireson and Christopher Green, aims to present a cohesive look at the self-taught artist's career.
The exhibition has sparked criticism for its interpretive framework, which heavily focuses on Rousseau's lack of commercial success during his lifetime, contrasting his modest historical sales with the multi-million-dollar auction prices his work commands today. This curatorial choice is seen as a belated institutional embrace that overlooks the formal power and emotional impact of his paintings, despite his significant influence on modern artists like Pablo Picasso and Wassily Kandinsky.