From Paris to Provence: French Painting at the Barnes

Charting a journey through France, From Paris to Provence: French Painting at the Barnes examines how place informed the work of modern painters in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

This exhibition presents more than 50 paintings from the first floor of the Barnes collection, in a display that reflects the expansion of our educational program, emphasizing the objects’ art-historical context. By placing iconic works in new contexts and juxtapositions, the exhibition encourages fresh perspectives.

To the unassuming student or visitor, the arrangement of the Barnes Foundation's collection can be surprising, confusing, or outright frustrating. This was by design. Dr. Barnes deliberately created a visual environment that would disrupt even the most seasoned gallerygoer's complacency. The ensembles are meant to provoke as well as instruct. By juxtaposing objects of dissimilar traditions, subjects, and media, Dr. Barnes drew attention to specific relationships between and among works in his collection. All aspects of the ensembles-the objects, paintings, frames, and their arrangement-is the work of the collector himself.

Learn more about the Barnes ensembles and method in The Barnes Foundation Handbook.