Henri Rousseau - exhibition "L ambition de la peinture" in Paris (25.3. - 20.7. 2026 in the Orangerie)
I visited Paris this April. The main reason was the Henri Rousseau exhibition called The Effort of Painting, and the main attraction was the opportunity to see paintings on loan from an American collector that I had never seen at any other exhibition.
Me - portrait, landscape
The first painting that introduces the exhibition is the painter's famous self-portrait, on loan from the National Gallery in Prague.
It is called "I, Portrait - Landscape" and is considered Rousseau's key work from 1890. The inspiration for the work was the World Exhibition in Paris,which took place a year earlier. In the painting we see the painter in a black festive suit with a palette in his hand on which are two names. Clémence and Josephine, the names of the painter's first and second wives. In the background we see a balloon, which was the highlight of the World Exhibition, along with a transoceanic steamer, moored at the time on the banks of the Seine.
I'm happy in Henri's world.
Then we enter 4 interconnected rooms. There are portraits and family paintings, still lifes, war scenes and jungle paintings.
For me personally, the most interesting were the smaller paintings, such naive still lifes, borrowed from a gallery in New York.
And a naively crafted political and war motif.
Family portraits and jungles
In the next, last room, a short film about the repainted painting is shown; moreover, the painting Self-Portrait is also being edited, which is revealed not only by the X-ray of the painting.
Henri Rousseau for the second time
And I'm at the end... no... I'm going again, this time more calmly and enjoying the atmosphere of the extraordinary exhibition.
Even after that, I don't feel like leaving the gallery so quickly. I have a coffee and a madeleine. And I take a few small things from the gallery shop.....
.jpg)