Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets

“‘A Painter’s Secrets’ is that rare, magical exhibition that casts a storybook spell,” said in The Wall Street Journal . It brings together 55 of the paintings of Henri Rousseau, a self-taught and widely misunderstood French artist whose popularity blossomed shortly after his death in 1910. The show “aims to dispel myths about Rousseau,” casting him as alert to the potential commercial advantages of being seen as naive. But the appeal is largely in the work and the “beautifully abundant” make-believe world it conjures. In Rousseau’s paintings, evocations of folk art and pre-Renaissance Christian religious painting merge with “magical thinking and the candid spontaneity of children’s art.” From the first gallery, we’re enchanted. Rousseau’s “early enigmatic masterpiece,” 1886’s Carniva