Schedule of exhibitions 2019 - 2020

THE LOUVRE PYRAMID TURNS 30
Starting March 29, 2019

Over the course of 2019, the Musée du Louvre is celebrating the Pyramid’s 30th anniversary.

Announced in September 1981 by French President François Mitterrand, the Grand Louvre project had the aim of devoting the whole palace, up until then partially occupied by the Ministry of Finance, to the museum. This immense construction project provided an opportunity to redesign visitor reception and the display of the artworks. Ieoh Ming Pei, the American architect of Chinese descent, conceived of a simplified entrance to the museum and proposed the construction of a glass pyramid in the center of the Cour Napoléon.
This project stirred up a great deal of controversy in the press, with criticism of the architect’s bold intervention on a monument emblematic of the history of France. The Pyramid nevertheless embodies the Louvre’s identity, rooted in history and firmly open to the world.

Starting on March 29, 2019, visitors can celebrate this anniversary through a series of free festive public events, including major happenings right in the Cour Napoléon, a weekend of activities for families, concerts and dance performances, and a photo exhibition. Symposia and conferences round out this rich program, shedding light on the back story of this monumental building project.

FORGOTTEN KINGDOMS: HEIRS OF THE HITTITE EMPIRE

May 2, 2019 — August 12, 2019

Hall Napoléon

Exhibition curator: Vincent Blanchard, Department of Near Eastern Antiquities.

The Hittite empire, a great rival power of ancient Egypt, ruled over Anatolia and held sway over the Levant until about 1200 BC. Its demise gave rise to Neo-Hittite and Aramean kingdoms in modern-day Turkey and Syria, heirs of the political, cultural, and artistic traditions of the fallen empire.
The exhibition invites visitors to rediscover the mythic sites of this forgotten civilization, such as the majestic remains of the Tell Halaf site, located near the current Turco-Syrian border. This major Syrian heritage site was discovered by Max von Oppenheim, who conducted excavations there from 1911 to 1913. The large sculptures, which adorned the palace of the Aramean king Kapara, were brought back to Berlin where they were exhibited, then very heavily damaged in WW2 bombings. An incredible conservation project carried out in the early 2000s made it possible to rehabilitate them.
The history of this collection makes for compelling testimony to the ongoing efforts to preserve endangered heritage sites, past and present. The Louvre is strongly committed to this cause, particularly in war-torn countries, by mobilizing the international community and, most recently, by participating in the creation of ALIPH in 2017 (International Alliance for the Protection of Heritage in Conflict Areas.)

LEONARDO DA VINCI
October 24, 2019–February 24, 2020
Hall Napoléon
Exhibition curators: Vincent Delieuvin, Department of Paintings, and Louis Frank, Department of Prints and Drawings.

The year 2019 marks the 500-year anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci in France, of particular importance for the Louvre, which holds the largest collection in the world of da Vinci’s paintings, as well as 22 drawings. The museum is seizing the opportunity in this year of commemorations to gather as many of the artist’s paintings as possible around the five core works in its collections: The Virgin of the Rocks, La Belle Ferronnière, the Mona Lisa (which will remain in the gallery where it is normally displayed), the Saint John the Baptist, and the Saint Anne. The objective is to place them alongside a wide array of drawings as well as a small but significant series of paintings and sculptures from the master’s circle.
This unprecedented retrospective of da Vinci’s painting career will illustrate how he placed utmost importance on painting, and how his investigation of the world, which he referred to as “the science of painting,” was the instrument of his art, seeking nothing less than to bring life to his paintings.
The exhibition is the culmination of more than ten years of work, notably including new scientific examinations of the Louvre’s paintings, and the conservation treatment of three of them, allowing for better understanding of da Vinci’s artistic practice and pictorial technique. Clarification of his biography has also emerged through the exhaustive reexamination of archival documents. The exhibition will paint the portrait of a man and an artist of extraordinary freedom.
Time slot tickets required for admission.

ENGRAVING FOR THE KING: THE HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS OF THE LOUVRE CHALCOGRAPHIE

February 21 – May 20, 2019
Rotonde Sully
Exhibition curator: Jean-Gérald Castex, Department of Prints and Drawings, Musée du Louvre.

Founded in 1797 under the Directory, the Louvre Chalcography holds over 14,000 engraved copperplates, used to make prints, and has the mission of disseminating the image of the museum’s masterpieces through engraving. This institution, which is part of the Musée du Louvre, arose from the merging of three collections of engraved plates, established starting in the second half of the 18th century: the Cabinet du Roi, including nearly 1,000 plates commissioned by Colbert to illustrate the greatness of Louis XIV’s reign; the Menus-Plaisirs collections, which spread the image of great Court ceremonies and public festivities of the 18th century; and the collection of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculptures, consisting of pieces requested from engravers upon their admission, and engraved plates acquired by the institution in the second half of the 18th century to develop its editorial collection.
The exhibition gathers some 120 works, including nearly 70 engraved plates from these three historical collections of the Louvre Chalcographie, presented alongside drawings from the Musée du Louvre’s Department of Prints and Drawings, and prints from the Edmond de Rothschild collection and the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.

ANTOINE-JEAN GROS AND THE SCHOOL OF DAVID
June 27 – September 30, 2019
Rotonde Sully
Exhibition curator: Laura Angelucci, documentary researcher in the Department of Prints and Drawings, Musée du Louvre.

Antoine-Jean Gros (1771–1835), one of the most celebrated students of the painter Jacques-Louis David (1748–1825), is rightly considered as a forerunner of romanticism. Even more than his paintings, his drawingsquickly illustrated a gradual shift away from his master’s classical instruction, leading to a definitive break from the neoclassical aesthetic, and the affirmation of a new style heralding this new artistic movement.
Designed to accompany the publication of the General Inventory of the Drawings of Antoine-Jean Gros at the Louvre (scheduled for June 2019), this presentation of some forty artworks from the museum will allow for an overview of the painter’s career, highlighting his talents as a draughtsman, little known to the public. A number of paintings will be on display alongside the drawings, retracing the career of the painter, who inspired the first generation of Romantics, including Géricault, from the time of Gros’s training in David’s atelier (starting in 1785) to his encounter with Bonaparte in Milan in late 1796. Certain drawings recall his great mastery in depicting Bonaparte’s military triumphs. The exhibition will conclude with examples of the call to order that Gros imposed upon his painting following the fall of the First Empire (1814), and with the Restoration of the Bourbon Monarchy (1815). These drawings paradoxically herald the peak of his career under the reigns of Louis XVIII (1815-1824) and Charles X (1824-1830).

ITALIAN DRAWINGS FROM THE MARIETTE COLLECTION
June 27 –September 30, 2019
Rotonde Sully south
Exhibition curator: Pierre Rosenberg, Honorary President-Director of the Musée du Louvre.

The Louvre is continuing its presentation of the Mariette Collection, shifting the spotlight to drawings by the great Italian masters, following its focus on French drawings in 2011.
The last representative of an illustrious dynasty of print-sellers, admitted as a “free associate” to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, Pierre-JeanMariette (1694–1774) was a printmaker and draughtsman, translator and art critic, tireless letter writer, and, perhaps above all, one of the greatest drawing collectors of all time.
While Mariette sought to create a universal collection that embodied the history of drawing as best possible, and accumulated works by the greatest figures to do so, he had a clear preference for Italy. In order to highlight the portion of the Mariette Collection that provided its creator with the greatest pleasure, and was furthermore coveted throughout Europe, the Musée du Louvre will present some sixty works from its own collections by the greatest Italian artists: Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, Veronese, the Carracci, Reni, Guercino, and more.