Barnes Foundation

Native American art is not static, it is a living cultural expression that bridges past and present, tradition and innovation. From ancestral pottery to contemporary digital media, these works embody resilience, continuity, and adaptation, while also challenging stereotypes that persist in mainstream art narratives. The Barnes invites you to “Echoes in Clay and Code: Native American Art Across Generations”, led by art historian Dakota Stevens. Through close looking and discussion, participants will examine how Native artists shape aesthetics across time, and how their work reflects the voices, stories, and knowledge of their communities. Echoes in Clay and Code: Native American Art Across Generations 📅 Mondays, November 3 – 24 🕕 6pm – 8pm ET 📍On-site 🎓 Scholarships available 🎟 Register ➡ https://bit.ly/3Vdb3bb Image: Yatika Starr Fields (Osage, Mvskoke, Cherokee). Diving Birds of Green Lake (detail), 2016. Courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York

A once-in-a-generation exhibition! 🌿🐯🎨 Opening October 19th at the Barnes, "Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets". Henri Rousseau (1844–1910) was no ordinary painter. A Paris toll collector with no formal training, he defied the odds to become a cult figure for avant-garde giants like Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky, and Frida Kahlo. "Henri Rousseau: A Painter’s Secrets" is the first major U.S. exhibition in decades devoted to this self-taught visionary. More than 60 extraordinary works invite you to see Rousseau in a whole new light. Three icons—"The Sleeping Gypsy" (The Museum of Modern Art), "The Snake Charmer" (Musée d'Orsay), and "Unpleasant Surprise" (Barnes)—appear together for the first time. Visitors will also encounter groundbreaking new research, revealing hidden layers beneath Rousseau’s celebrated canvases. This world-premiere collaboration between the Barnes Foundation and the Musée de l'Orangerie (Paris) unites, for the first time, the two most important Rousseau collections in the world. Henri Rousseau: A Painter's Secrets 📅 October 19, 2025 - February 22, 2026 🎟️Reserve your tickets ➡️ https://bit.ly/46xauOE 🖼️ Henri Rousseau. The Sleeping Gypsy (La bohémienne endormie), 1897. Oil on canvas, 51 × 79 in. (129.5 × 200.7 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Gift of Mrs. Simon Guggenheim, 1939. Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY

Claude Debussy is often called the “musical equivalent” of the impressionists. Just as Monet, Renoir, and Degas broke away from academic painting, Debussy and his contemporaries like Ravel and Fauré transformed music through color, texture, and atmosphere. Join us as we examine the intersections between impressionist art and music, combining close study of paintings with both recordings and live performance by acclaimed flutist Mimi Stillman. By exploring the social and historical connections between artists, composers, and writers of the late 19th century, participants will gain a deeper understanding of how modernism reshaped both the visual and musical worlds. Impressionism and the Music of Claude Debussy and His Contemporaries 📅 Mondays, November 3 – November 24 🕐 1pm – 3pm ET 📍 On-site 🎓 Scholarships available 🎟 Register ➡ https://bit.ly/3KghA2q Image: Top: Claude Monet. Girl with Dog (detail), 1873. The Barnes Foundation. Public Domain. Bottom: Claude Debussy’s handwritten score for L’Après-Midi d’un Faune, September 1894. Courtesy of the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP). Public Domain

Join senior instructor in adult education at the Barnes, Kaelin Jewell for an hour of focused visual discovery with Chaïm Soutine’s “Flayed Rabbit”. This one-session Close-Looking Immersion uses the Barnes Method to guide participants through an in-depth examination of line, color, and composition, revealing how sustained attention can transform the way we experience art. Whether you’re an art professional, student, or enthusiast, this is an opportunity to sharpen your eye and engage with the Barnes collection in a meaningful way. Close-Looking Immersion: Soutine’s Flayed Rabbit 📆 Wednesday, October 15 🕕 6pm – 7pm ET 💻 Online 🎟 Register ➡ https://bit.ly/4fxed2M 🎨 Chaïm Soutine. Flayed Rabbit (detail), c. 1921. The Barnes Foundation, BF333. © 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris

Gustave Courbet’s work redefined realism and paved the way for modern painting. His monumental depictions of peasant life, striking nudes, and masterful works like “A Burial at Ornans” challenged 19th-century norms and continue to inspire critical discussion today. “Courbet Reconsidered”, our upcoming Barnes course led by Paul Galvez, research associate at the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History at the The University of Texas at Dallas, explores the many facets of this groundbreaking artist—from radical realist to avant-garde icon—and his enduring impact on art history. Courbet Reconsidered 📆 Fridays, October 10 – 31 🕐 1pm – 3pm ET 💻 Online 🎓 Scholarships available 🎟 Register ➡ https://bit.ly/3Jdctjg 🎨 Gustave Courbet. Burial at Ornans (detail), 1849–50. Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Photo by Adrien Didierjean / Mathieu Rabeau. Photo © RMN-Grand Palais, Paris / Art Resource, NY

From medieval manuscripts to East Asian scrolls, depictions of hell have long captured human imagination. These powerful images—of fire, torture, and judgment—do more than terrify: they reflect deep cultural anxieties, religious beliefs, and social norms. Join art historian and educator Antongiulio Sorgini, PhD for “Infernal Visions: Ideas of Hell in the History of Art”, an exploration of how European, East Asian, and Islamicate artists visualized the underworld and shaped the lived experiences of their audiences. Gain insight into how art transforms fear into meaning—and how the underworld became a mirror for the human condition. Infernal Visions: Ideas of Hell in the History of Art 📆 Wednesdays, October 8 – 29 🕕 6pm – 8pm ET 💻 Online 🎟 Register ➡ https://bit.ly/45wFhdP 🖼️ Coppo di Marcovaldo. The Last Judgment (The Devil Eats the Souls of the Damned) (detail), c.1270. Baptistery of Saint John, Florence, Italy

At the Barnes, our conservation team is stabilizing paint on Renoir's "The Henriot Family" through a process called consolidation, where a conservation-grade adhesive is introduced beneath fragile flakes to secure the artist’s original brushwork. This work ensures the painting’s stability before additional treatment steps, like varnish removal, can take place. Funding for the conservation of this artwork was generously provided through a grant from the Bank of America Art Conservation Project, allowing for time and resources to safeguard this iconic painting for generations to come.

Discover the power of visual storytelling in the Barnes collection. Dr. Albert C. Barnes’s signature “ensembles” arrange paintings, metalwork, furniture, and textiles in ways that spark connections across cultures and time periods. This one-session, on-site class focuses on the north wall of Room 2, offering participants a deeper understanding of how the objects speak to one another—and to us. Afternoon with an Ensemble: Room 2 📆 Wednesday, October 8 🕑 2pm – 4pm ET 📍 On-site 🎟 Register ➡ https://bit.ly/4oyhjrh 📸: Ensemble view, Room 2, east wall, Philadelphia. Image © The Barnes Foundation

We’re thrilled to launch a new cross-disciplinary online course with The Rosenbach Museum & Library that brings together art, music, and literature to explore the roots of modernism. Through the works of James Joyce, Igor Stravinsky, and Pablo Picasso, participants will examine how early 20th-century artists and thinkers developed bold new creative languages that changed their fields—and how their paths intersected across disciplines. This course will be co-taught by Paul Saint-Amour, Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Humanities at the University of Pennsylvania; Naina Saligram, Barnes research fellow; and acclaimed flutist Mimi Stillman. Modernism Across Media: Joyce, Stravinsky, Picasso 📆 Mondays, October 6 – 27 🕕 6pm – 8pm ET 💻 Online 🎓 Scholarships available 🎟 Register ➡ https://bit.ly/4mhgu4W 📷: Detail of James Joyce’s Ulysses manuscript (p. 1), 1917. Rosenbach Museum & Library. Center: Pablo Picasso. Man with Guitar, 1917. The Barnes Foundation, BF684. © 2025 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Right: Score for Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, 1913. Handwritten in 1944. Rosenbach Museum & Library

The Barnes is best known for its modern masters, but our collection also spans thousands of years of human creativity. Our new on-demand course with Kaelin Jewell, senior instructor in adult education at the Barnes, highlights remarkable artifacts from ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome—including ceramic vessels, limestone carvings, and marble sculptures, some more than 3,000 years old. Often overshadowed by paintings, these works reveal enduring stories of power, belief, beauty, and everyday life—stories that continue to shape the way we view art and culture today. In Focus: The Ancient World 💻 On-demand 🎟 Register ➡ https://bit.ly/4nzgldp