Exhibition: From Douanier Rousseau to Séraphine, the Grand Naive Masters

The Maillol Museum presents an exhibition in the footsteps of Henri Rousseau and Séraphine Louis, which takes the visitor to discover the elusive world of painters of naive art. These are self-taught artists who embarked on this artistic practice and who knew how to renew it. Also known as “modern primitives”, they reshaped painting in their own way.

Over a hundred resplendent works are brought together for the first time in Paris. The exhibition highlights these art nouveau painters who come to Paris in search of work or worker jobs and who are attached to their daily environment. Each of these artists devotes part of their painting to representations of city life or emblematic buildings that they take as their decor.

Henri Rousseau (1844-1910), owes his name “Douanier Rousseau” to his profession of “gabelou” at the Paris Grant, he is responsible for controlling goods there. Séraphine Louis (1864-1942), called Séraphine de Senlis, works as a housekeeper in Paris and in Picardy. Louis Vivin (1861-1936), a full-time post office worker once retired, and Jean Eve (1900-1968), the youngest painter in the group, devoted himself to painting landscapes by day and working at night. There are also André Bauchant, Camille Bombois, Ferdinand Desnos, Dominique Peyronnet and René Rimbert.

Still life is perhaps the only area that all of these painters have in common in their personal style. Sunday painters or popular masters, the Maillol Museum intends to unveil them.

Exhibition extended until February 23, 2020

Maillol Museum

61 rue de Grenelle

75007 Paris

https://www.museemaillol.com/fr/douanier-rousseau-seraphine

The museum is open every day during the temporary exhibition period from 10:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Friday night until 8:30 p.m.

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Claudine BESSOU

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