This is the time of year when spring is in full force in Paris—trees are green (after months of gray emptiness), people sit outside in cafés (after months of bundling up), and museums are brimming with new art shows. Here is a sampling of the latest offerings at principal museums in the art capital of the world.

A crowd-pleaser, Henri Rousseau, A Painter’s Ambition is a retrospective of the strange art of a self-taught dreamer. Rousseau also dreamed of official recognition—state medals, inclusion in official exhibitions, and commissions for city hall decorations—but it was a dream never realized. Officialdom shunned him as “an amateur.” Instead his recognition came from fellow artists: Picasso gave a luncheon in his honor and collected his paintings, so did Modigliani, and even though Rousseau died in obscurity, later his tombstone was funded by an artists’ collective. The exhibition assembles Rousseau’s works, from his earliest attempts at portraits to the inventive jungle fantasies of his artistic maturity. Pure fun!

Continue reading….