Louvre Museum

Gardens and Palaces of the East

Colorful and immersive, the exhibition 'Gardens and Palaces of the East' invites visitors on a poetic and dreamlike journey through several millennia of history. It showcases the palaces and gardens of Achaemenid Persia, ancient Egypt, medieval Spain, and the great modern empires of the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal worlds, featuring 260 artworks lent by the Louvre Museum and various institutions from the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. Reflecting paradise amidst often arid lands, gardens in the East serve as a palace of nature and a marvelous space, enriched by the abundance of water, the charm of flowers, and the lively and chirping presence of birds. The exhibition's path reveals the deep symbolic and spiritual meanings attached to Eastern gardens, from foundational myths to modern and contemporary representations. It also explores the inseparable link between the architecture of palaces and gardens, distinguishing this exhibition from past ones solely focused on gardens. The exhibit concludes by showcasing the uses of Eastern gardens, oscillating between intimacy and grand celebrations. A transient art, continually renewed through the ages, the work of artist Stéphane Thidet extends to contemporary concerns and the gardens of tomorrow. Palaces, parks, and vanished gardens, relics of Edens, reflections of paradise, gardens of poets, painters, and dreams—all have flourished in the imagination of civilizations that have succeeded each other in an East stretching from Spain to India. Here, the language of flowers was read. The breeze and birds could be heard. Games, music, hunting, and dance were practiced. Lions, peacocks, and gazelles coexisted. 'Gardens and Palaces of the East' aims to resonate with these marvelous worlds.

A New Look at Cimabue

At the Origins of Italian Painting

For the first time, the Musée du Louvre is dedicating an exhibition to Cimabue, one of the most significant artists of the 13th century. This exhibition follows the restoration of the Maestà and the acquisition of a previously unseen Cimabue panel, rediscovered in France in 2019 and classified as a French National Treasure: Christ Mocked. Both paintings were restored in 2024 and serve as the exhibition's focal point, aiming to highlight the exceptional richness and undeniable innovation of Cimabue's art. The exhibition culminates with Giotto's magnificent painting, Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata, designed for the same architectural setting as the Louvre's Maestà: the tramezzo, or rood screen, of the Church of San Francesco in Pisa, created a few years later by Cimabue's talented young disciple.

The Orphan by Luc Tuymans

The Louvre, a former palace turned museum, is adorned with decorations created by the greatest artists of their time. In May 2024, painter Luc Tuymans is invited to create a temporary work in the Rotonde Valentin de Boulogne, at the junction of the so-called "Sully" and "Richelieu" wings, at the heart of French paintings and near Flemish schools. A major contemporary artist, Luc Tuymans (born in 1958 in Mortsel, Belgium, and currently living and working in Antwerp) has consistently explored new forms while remaining rooted in the grand tradition of painting. His work has been exhibited in the most prestigious museums around the globe. For this first project in a Parisian museum, marking the return of the act of painting within museum walls, he will create an in situ temporary painting titled The Orphan. This four-panel work assembles three found images depicting the cleaning of a palette, embodying the museum's unique role as a school for artists, a space for copying, and creating works. While the cleaned palette also signifies a form of cruelty, it is joined by a fourth image, that of a lost work by the artist entitled The Orphan, which lends its name to this series.

Icons from Ukraine

This exhibition showcases a stunning collection of icons from Ukraine, available for public viewing from September 12, 2024, to June 2, 2025.

The Experience of Nature

Art in Prague at the Court of Rudolf II

The Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II (1552–1612), a prominent patron of the arts and sciences, was among the European rulers most passionately engaged with the study of nature. He called upon scholars and artists from across Europe to gather at his court, where they collaborated closely within the castle walls, transforming Prague into a genuine laboratory and a hub of experimentation, thriving under an environment of intellectual and religious tolerance. The first section of the exhibition will highlight this unique amalgamation of scientific and artistic insights concerning nature, particularly notable in the Prague court. This convergence was marked by a fresh, direct, and observational approach; artists became vital players in the initial developments of empiricism—not only crafting scientific instruments that were both visually appealing and innovative but also documenting the plant and animal world through their illustrations, substantially contributing to the cataloging of living species during that era in the natural sciences. Like their scientific counterparts, artists were intrigued by the concealed forces operating within nature, which they articulated through the medium of allegory. All were immersed in a shared humanist culture, primarily cultivated through literature and inherited from classical antiquity. However, the structured systems portrayed in earlier works faltered under the meticulous observation of an ever-changing and unpredictable natural world. The second part of the exhibition will reveal how this shared curiosity regarding nature's forms, prevalent among both artists and scientists, sparked a renaissance of artistic creation in Prague. New methodologies, such as plein air drawing, gained popularity, and this direct engagement with nature inspired artists to experiment with innovative materials and subjects, including those previously deemed unworthy of representation. A burgeoning appreciation for new artistic techniques emerged, aimed at mimicking the uniqueness of natural forms and reflecting the inherent instability in the life processes of living organisms.

LOUVRE COUTURE

Art and Fashion: Statement Piece

This exhibition explores the intricate relationship between art and fashion through captivating statement pieces. It highlights how contemporary fashion design engages with the historical works housed within the Louvre, emphasizing artistic influences across time. Visitors will see a selection of 65 contemporary silhouettes that enter into poetic dialogues with the remarkable objects in the museum's collections, particularly those from the . Through this approach, the exhibition aims to illuminate the endless interactions between historical decorative styles and modern design.

The Curator, the Coffin and the Beard

Current Exhibition

This exhibition focuses particularly on the funerary ensemble of Soutymès, the priest of the god Amon during the early 21st dynasty (1869 – 943 BC). It demonstrates how, based on documents compiled by Devéria, certain elements that had become separated over time could be reunited.

The Met at the Louvre

Near Eastern Antiquities in Dialogue

The Louvre’s Department of Near Eastern Antiquities presents ten significant works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which is currently undergoing renovations. This exhibition fosters a unique dialogue between these two renowned collections, displayed in the Louvre's permanent galleries. These special guest artworks, dating from the late 4th millennium BC to the 5th century AD, reveal fascinating connections with the Louvre’s own collection. In some cases, pairs of objects have been rejoined for the first time, while in others, pieces complement each other due to specific historical features of their respective collections. Representing regions from Central Asia to Syria, Iran, and Mesopotamia, this exhibit invites visitors to (re)explore these extraordinary ancient works of art and the timeless stories they convey.

Mamlouks

1250-1517

For the first time in Europe, the Louvre Museum presents a major exhibition on the Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1517), aiming to explore the full richness and breadth of this golden age of Islamic Middle East, contextualized within a transregional perspective. The Mamluks constructed their legend on their military prowess. This exhibition features nearly 260 works, with one third sourced from the Louvre collections.

A Chinese Passion

The Collection of Mr. Thiers

It is a relatively unknown fact that Chinese art is indeed well represented at the Louvre. The houses over 600 works of Chinese origin, primarily from the collections of Adolphe Thiers and Adèle de Rothschild, as well as from royal collections. Among these are true treasures. Recent studies have highlighted those from the Thiers collection, a journalist, historian, and major political figure of the 19th century (deputy, minister, president of the council, and finally president of the French Republic). The exhibition aims to reveal these exceptional works to the public, relating them to the historical, diplomatic, and cultural context of their creation and subsequent collection by Thiers. It shines a light on Thiers's previously lesser-known passion for China. It will feature over 170 works, predominantly from the 18th and 19th centuries: scrolls, album pages, engravings, prints, porcelains, jades, lacquers, ivories, bronzes, or wood inlaid with stones and mother-of-pearl... The first section will briefly present Adolphe Thiers, his unique perspective on art, his approach to collecting, and his passion for the Renaissance. The second section, forming the heart of the exhibition, will present the Chinese collection as a whole. Thiers, wanting to write about Chinese art, collected books about China, documents, and artworks simultaneously. The exhibition follows the major themes observable in his collection: ancient and contemporary history, images of China (landscapes, architecture, costumes), some key themes of Chinese culture (language, writing, literati), the 'three teachings' (Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism), Chinese porcelain - of which he was a recognized expert, and finally, imperial art. In this last domain, the collection includes several masterpieces, including an exceptional scroll of Qingming Shanghe Tu created for Emperor Qianlong.