Art: Man with a Big Hat

The average Manhattan gallerygoer will no longer jump and yell if confronted with an abstract maze or a surrealist swamp. But last week he had something to sigh with relief at: an exhibition as bright, pretty and woodenly realistic as a carrousel. The kale-green landscapes, rosy nudes and white-faced clowns all showed the hand of a contented craftsman. All bore a bold, neatly curlycued signature, Bombois, Clle.

At 64, Camille Bombois is one of Paris' best-selling "primitive" (self-taught) painters. He lives with his wife and their canary in a cosily cluttered little house on the Rue Emile-Desvaux, painting steadily and tidily far...

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