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Alliance française de Philadelphie - 1420 Walnut St, Suite700e |
Two different activities:
A lecture by Art Curator Dr. Kedra Keiris and a guided tour of the exhibition
Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets with docent Nancy Gabel.
Register for both events and get a discount. Here’s how it works:
*Discount code non-transferable and only applicable when registering for both events.
Henri Rousseau: The Man, the Myth, and the Paris of His Imagination
Painter Henri Rousseau (1844–1910) was a self-taught artist whose seemingly fantastical works ranged from the quiet outskirts of Paris to dreamlike visions of distant jungles. Nicknamed Le Douanier— “the Customs Man”—for his job as a toll collector, Rousseau became an unlikely hero of the Parisian avant-garde in the early twentieth century. Artists such as Pablo Picasso and writer Guillaume Apollinaire celebrated him after his death in 1910.
Nous te saluons
Gentil Rousseau tu nous entends
Delaunay, sa femme, Monsieur Queval et moi
Laisse passer nos bagages en franchise à la porte du ciel
Nous t'apporterons des pinceaux, des couleurs et des toiles
Afin que tes loisirs sacrés dans la lumière réelle
Tu les consacres à peindre comme tu tiras mon portrait
La face des étoiles.
Guillaume Appolinaire, épitaphe à la craie 1912
But who was Henri Rousseau, and how did he envision jungle animals without ever leaving France? This talk explores the myth and the man, tracing the artist’s Paris of the late nineteenth century—the City of Light that fueled his imagination—and revealing what Rousseau observed, what he imagined, and how he fashioned himself as a modern artist.
Join art historian Dr. Kedra Kearis for an examination of a vibrant selection of Rousseau’s paintings, now featured in a major
upcoming exhibition at the Barnes Foundation, and uncover how this so-called “naïve” painter left an indelible mark on modern
art.
Kedra
Kearis,
is an associate curator of art and visual culture at Winterthur Museum, Garden & Library and an affiliated assistant professor at the
University of Delaware. She earned her PhD in art history from Temple’s Tyler School of Art and Architecture, specializing in
European and American art and decorative arts in a global context. Kearis is a member of the Board of Directors at the Alliance Française de
Philadelphie and was formerly a researcher and faculty member at the Barnes Foundation, where she taught courses on European modernism.
Extract from the Barnes Foundation website:
A once-in-a-generation exhibition. A visionary artist revealed.
Step into the lush, hypnotic world of Henri Rousseau, one of the boldest forces in modern art.
Born in 1844, and with no formal art training, Rousseau defied the odds to become a cult figure to avant-garde legends such as Pablo Picasso. His paintings—dreamlike, symbolic, and deeply strange—range from imaginative visions of the jungle to portraits that capture his neighbors and loved ones.
Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets is the first major US exhibition in decades dedicated to this pioneering French painter. Featuring more than 60 works—including world-famous highlights like The Sleeping Gypsy, The Snake Charmer, and Unpleasant Surprise—the exhibition invites you to see Rousseau in a whole new light.
Don’t miss this world-premiere exhibition that unveils new research discoveries—including hidden layers beneath some of Rousseau’s celebrated paintings—and brings together, for the first time, the two most important Rousseau collections in the world, those of the Barnes Foundation and the Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris.!
*** WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ***
Day: Friday, Oct 24th, 2025
Time: 6:30pm to 7:30pm
Duration: 1 hour
Location: Alliance Francaise, 1420 Walnut St, Philadelphia, PA 19102
Language: French, English
Fee: $18 for AF members /$20 for non members
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