Spring 2026 Exhibition at the Musée de l’Orangerie
Henri Rousseau. A Painter’s Ambition
From March 25th to July 20th, 2026
Henri Rousseau, La Charmeuse de serpents, 1907, © Musée d’Orsay, dist. RMN-Grand Palais
At the age of 49, Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) retired from his job as a customs officer and left his native hometown of Laval. He moved to Paris where he decided to devote himself entirely to painting. Through a range of genres and techniques, Rousseau made a name for himself on the Parisian art scene: he sent compositions to the Salon des Indépendants, decorated town halls in the Ile-de-France region, painted portraits commissioned by his friends and family, as well as sold landscapes and self-portraits. Paul Guillaume, whose collection is the centerpiece of the Musée de l’Orangerie’s collection, was himself an avid collector of Rousseau’s work, owning up to fifty of the artist’s paintings.
Organised in collaboration with the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, this exhibition is the first to bring together a significant body of works by Henri Rousseau. Looking at the history of these two institutions, this collaboration makes perfect sense: Paul Guillaume acted as an intermediary for Albert Barnes when he purchased eighteen of Rousseau’s paintings.
This exhibition brings together two of the largest Rousseau collections, as well as major works from international public collections. It aims to go beyond the legends surrounding the name of ‘Le Douanier Rousseau’ (Rousseau the toll collector). It studies his artistic career in depth, exploring the artworks’ materiality and studying them in the context of the modern art market, in which Paul Guillaume and Albert Barnes were key figures.