Ferdinand Desnos was a French naive painter in the tradition of Rousseau whose work is compared to his contemporary Camille Bombois. The artist work became critcially acclaimed in 1854 - sadly a bit late for the painter who died just a few years later. He painted nearly 800 canvases and took part in many group exhibitions, including: 1941, the first Salon de la Paysannerie Française, Paris; 1945, Salon d'Hiver, Paris; 1945, Salon des Vrais Indépendants, Paris; From Vallotton to Desnos ( De Vallotton à Desnos), Vevey Museum; 1968, 20th-century Primitives ( Primitifs du XXe siècle), Le Creusot; 1974, Five French Naive Painters ( Cinq peintres naïfs français), Maison de la Culture et des Loisirs; 1977, Naive Painters, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo; 1982, The Genius of the Naive Painters ( Le Génie des naïfs), Salon des Indépendants, Paris; 1990, The Douanier Rousseau and the 20th-century Primitives ( Le Douanier Rousseau et les Primitifs du XXe siècle), Musée du Petit Palais, Geneva; 1992, Henri Rousseau and Naive Art ( Henri Rousseau et l'Art naïf), Chiba, Japan, travelling exhibition.
