Third Floor Manuscript Gallery
Free Entrance

Highly detailed and original, Léon Bonvin’s watercolors of flowers, landscapes and moonlit scenes represent a distinctive contribution to the realist movement in mid-19th century France. Bonvin’s luminous paintings reflect the humble surroundings accessible to the artist, a self-taught innkeeper on the outskirts of Paris. Museum founder William Walters acquired an outstanding collection of Bonvin’s work following the artist’s tragic suicide in 1866.