Naive school of painting drew on reality

The first section, Sunday Tables, is about still life, a popular genre of painting during the 20th century. Here, visitors will learn about each artist's unique take on the subject.

The second section, The Life of Others, highlights the human form and its relationship to the environment, one of the key themes explored by the naive artists. In this section visitors will get to view subjects ranging from the sensual to the historical to the disturbing.

Most of the naive painters dabbled in portraiture. For Rousseau, Bombois and Desnos, the subjects were their loved ones. The others often painted historical or mythical figures.

All of these artists, except Rimbert, had come from other parts of France before settling in Paris, where they got invited to art salons and became recognized by critics and collectors. Paris was to them "the enchanted city", which is the title of the third section.

In the fourth section, titled Garden's Dream, visitors are greeted by Bauchant's Bouquet Pour Dina. Bauchant was the son of a gardener and had followed in his father's footsteps in managing a nursery. When World War I broke out, the garden was destroyed and he was enlisted in the army and appointed as a mapmaker for his artistic skills. He was stationed in Salonika, Greece, and this would later inspire him to create paintings from mythology and historical references.

Bouquet Pour Dina was dedicated to Dina Vierny, who used to be a model for the renowned sculptor Aristide Maillol and later opened her own gallery. She was fond of the naive artists, as evidenced by her art collection that had more than 300 paintings by them.