A Carnival Evening

First shown in the second Salon des Indépendants in Paris in 1886, this painting is an early demonstration of Henri Rousseau's unique chromatic imagination, his proto-Surrealist ability to juggle unexpected pictorial elements, and his untutored but brilliant skill in the stylization of forms. Isolated and vulnerable in their fantasy clothing, the two figures confront the viewer bravely and with naïve conviction.

— Christopher Riopelle, from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections (1995), p. 202.