The painters of the Sacred Heart

Séraphine Louis (1864-1942), Henri Rousseau (1844-1910), Camille Bombois (1883-1970), André Bauchant (1873-1958), Louis Vivin (1861-1939) – they belong to the circle of Sacred Heart painters. Autodidacts without academic training, for whose talent the German art historian and dealer, author and gallery owner Wilhelm Uhde (1874-1947) had a sense. He was enthusiastic about the flowers, fruits, animals, and landscapes that the learned publican, gardener, or fairground wrestler and his housekeeper put on paper. They testified to »an immediate connection to nature, a soulful approach to the things of the immediate environment.« Uhde christened the group the sonorous name the Painters of the Sacred Heart and organized a first show in Paris in 1928.

Starting July 16, the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden will retell their story and pay tribute to both the work of the self-taught artists and their discoverer and mentor Wilhelm Uhde with Painters of the Sacred Heart. It is the first such extensive exhibition of the group. Except for two paintings by Henri Rousseau from the Fondation Beyeler and the Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection, it is fed by a selection of works from the collection of Charlotte Zander (1930-2014). It will be on view from July 16 to November 20.