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ArtLogia

Photo: Benh LIEU SONG, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons

About the museum

The story of the Louvre Museum

The Louvre began as a twelfth-century fortress, became the palace of the French kings and opened as a public museum in 1793, in the middle of the French Revolution. Today it is the most visited museum in the world, and its galleries along the Seine hold one of the deepest collections of European painting anywhere.

Its painting departments run from Italian Renaissance altarpieces to the great French history paintings of David, Géricault and Delacroix. I. M. Pei's glass pyramid, opened in 1989, is now the entrance and the museum's best-known image.

The collection

The Louvre's Department of Paintings holds around 7,500 works, of which several thousand are on show. The French school is the largest, running from medieval panels to the vast canvases of Neoclassicism and Romanticism hung in the red-walled Grande Galerie and the Mollien and Daru rooms.

Its Italian collection is one of the finest outside Italy, with Leonardo, Raphael, Titian, Veronese and Caravaggio, while the Richelieu wing holds the Northern schools: Flemish primitives, Rubens's Medici cycle, Rembrandt, Vermeer's The Lacemaker and The Astronomer, and Dürer's self-portrait.

At ArtLogia you can order 1035 of its paintings as hand-painted reproductions, by 424 artists led by Camille Corot, Eugène Delacroix and Théodore Géricault.

paintings to order
1035
artists
424
art movements
14
years covered
1275–1900

The building

The palace grew over eight centuries along the Right Bank of the Seine, from Philippe Auguste's fortress, whose foundations can still be seen underground, to the Renaissance Cour Carrée and Napoleon III's grand wings. I. M. Pei's glass pyramid in the Cour Napoléon, controversial when it opened in 1989, now lights the vast entrance hall below.

Masterpieces to see

Planning a visit

Book a timed ticket in advance, and visit the Denon wing first if the Mona Lisa and the great French history paintings are on your list.

Hand-painted in oil

Famous paintings from the Louvre Museum

Each reproduction is painted by hand by a professional artist, following the original's composition, colour and brushwork. Choose your size, and have it rolled, stretched or framed.

64 paintings

Filters (1)

Artists in the collection

Louvre Museum: frequently asked questions

How long do you need to visit the Louvre?

A first visit focused on the highlights takes about three to four hours. Seeing the painting galleries properly takes a full day, and many visitors return several times.

Where is the Mona Lisa in the Louvre?

The Mona Lisa hangs in the Salle des États in the Denon wing, on the first floor, opposite Veronese's huge Wedding at Cana.

Is the Louvre the largest art museum in the world?

It is the world's most visited museum and one of the largest, with about 73,000 square metres of galleries and a collection of several hundred thousand objects.

What are the most famous paintings at the Louvre Museum?

Its best-known paintings include Mona Lisa, The Raft of the Medusa, Liberty Leading the People. ArtLogia offers 1035 hand-painted reproductions of works from its collection.

When was the Louvre Museum founded?

The Louvre Museum dates from 1793. See the history above for how its collection grew.

Can I buy a reproduction of a painting from the Louvre Museum?

Yes. Paintings such as Mona Lisa and Liberty Leading the People can be ordered as hand-painted oil reproductions on canvas, in any size, rolled, stretched or framed, with free worldwide shipping.

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