Acne Paper Palais Royal in Paris is dedicating its latest exhibition to the women who defined the world of fashion illustrator René Bouché, gathering 70 portrait drawings from the René Bouché Studio Archive for the first time since 1957.
Titled “The Women of René Bouché”, the show runs from 9 April to 7 June 2026 at 124 Galerie de Valois, 75001 Paris, with opening hours from Thursday to Saturday, 11 am–7 pm, and Sunday, 12–7 pm.
A Rediscovered Archive of Mid Century Femininity
Curated by Dean Rhys-Morgan, the exhibition draws on a long-unseen archive that had remained in private hands for decades, much of it preserved in the home René Bouché shared with his wife, Denise Lawson Johnston. The portraits, many of which last appeared publicly at Bouché’s final show at the Alexander Iolas Gallery in 1957, capture mid 20th century femininity with a mix of elegance, wit, and psychological acuity that made him one of Vogue’s defining illustrators of the era. By bringing these works together in Palais Royal, Acne Paper positions Bouché not just as a fashion footnote but as a sharp observer of character whose drawings sit somewhere between society portraiture and modernist graphic art.
The Women Behind the Lines
At the heart of the show is Denise Lawson‑Johnston, a model, editor, and Bouché’s wife, who appears throughout the drawings as both muse and anchor. After his death, she devoted herself to preserving his legacy, keeping the studio archive intact, and making a project like this possible. Alongside Denise, the exhibition features portraits of figures such as Émilie, Princess Boncompagni Ludovisi, Lee, Princess Radziwill, and Margaret, Duchess of Argyll, women who moved between aristocratic, artistic, and fashion circles and whose faces helped define the visual language of post‑war elegance. Seen together, they reveal how Bouché used line, gesture, and composition to suggest not just clothes and status, but inner life.
