The Doctor and the Douanier: How Dr. Barnes Built His Collection of Rousseaus
Until March 2, 2026
The story behind the world’s largest collection of Rousseaus.
Albert C. Barnes with Rousseau’s Unpleasant Surprise in Gallery 23 of the Cret Gallery, c. 1946. Photo by Angelo Pinto. Courtesy of the Pinto family. Photograph Collection, Barnes Foundation Archives
Free with admission; on view on the lower level and online
About the Exhibition
Between 1923 and 1929, Dr. Albert C. Barnes built the largest collection of Rousseau canvases in the world—18—integrating them into the educational program of the newly chartered Barnes Foundation. This archival exhibition tells the story of Dr. Barnes’s connection to the artist and his work, and the discourse surrounding both. Archival correspondence, invoices, and photographs create a chronology of Barnes’s Rousseau collection. Meanwhile, notes, drafts, and articles speak to the reactions of Barnes and his contemporaries to the artist and his oeuvre, showing how interpretations and attitudes are shaped, and how they shift over the years.
On view on the lower level and online.
The Doctor and the Douanier is a companion to Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets, on view in the Roberts Gallery from October 19, 2025, to February 22, 2026.
Go Further
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