Museum of Louvre

The museum of Louvre is largest Musée Paris IEN by its surface (160  106 m ² of which 58  470 devoted to the exposures). Located in the middle of the town of Paris, between Right Bank of the the Seine and the Street of Rivoli, in the I {{er}} district, the building is an old royal palace, the Palais of Louvre. The equestrian Statue of Louis XIV constitutes the starting point of the historical Axe, but the palate is not aligned on this axis. It is one of the oldest museums and the larger third in the world in term of surface. Louvre has long story of an artistic and historical conservation of the France, since the kings Capétiens until our days.

Museum universalist, Louvre covers a broad chronology and a geographical surface, since antiquity up to 1848, with Western Europe to Iran, via Greece, Egypt and the Middle East. With Paris, the period after 1848 for European arts is dealt with by the Musée of Orsay and the Center Pompidou, whereas Asian arts are exposed to Guimet. Arts of Africa, America and Oceania take as for them places at the Musée of the quay Branly, but a hundred chiefs of works are exposed to the house of the sessions. Works are of varied nature: paintings, sculptures, drawings, ceramics, archaeological artefacts and objets d'art… Among the most famous parts of the museum are the Code of Hammurabi, the Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa of Léonard de Vinci, and Freedom guiding the people Eugene Delacroix. Louvre is the museum more visited in the world, with 8,3 million visitors in 2006.

The royal palace

At the origin of Louvre there is a strong Château, the Grosse tower of Louvre, set up by the king Philippe Auguste in 1190. One of its main missions is the monitoring of the downstream of the the Seine, one of the traditional ways of the invasions and raids since the time of the Viking S. With the transfer of the goods of the Ordre of the Temple to the Ordre of the Hospital, the royal Treasury previously preserved at the Temple of Paris is transported in 1317 in Louvre. Charles V makes castle a royal residence.

Become obsolete, the Grosse tower is destroyed by François I {{er}} in 1528 and in 1546 begins the transformation of the fortress into luxurious royal residence. This work is carried out by Pierre Lescot and continues under the reign of Henri II and Charles IX. Two new wings are then associated with the building.

In 1594, Henri IV decides to link the palate of Louvre to the Palais of Tileries builds by Catherine de Médicis: it is the “Great Intention”, whose first stage is the Large Gallery.

The Square Court is built by the Architecte S Lemercier then Vau under the reign of Louis XIII and Louis XIV, quadrupling the size of the old court of the Renaissance. The decoration and the installation of the palate are then directed by painters like Poussin, Romanelli and Brown the. But all this is brutally stopped when Louis XIV chooses Versailles like centers capacity and royal residence in 1678. Louvre remains then a long time such as it is. It is only at the 18th century that new projects, carried out in particular by Gabriel and Soufflot, come to continue and complete the “Great Intention”. One of these new projects is that to transform Louvre into museum. It occurs under Louis XV but will lead truly only with the Révolution.

History of the museum

Beginnings

All starts with an exposure of the most beautiful tables of the royal collection, which is held with the Palais of Luxembourg of 1750 with 1785 and which is an enormous success. The Marquis de Marigny, managing director of the Buildings of the King, and its successor the count d' Angiviller work out the project then to make of Louvre a permanent museum. The project transforms into law the May 6th 1791, and there the August 10th 1793 takes place the inauguration of the new museum, created initially as place of formation for the artists of the time who were only, until 1855, with being able to enter in week, the public not being allowed that Sunday.

Under the Empire, Louvre takes the name of museum Napoleon . Dominique-Alive Denon is the first director; it makes some largest of the museums of the world (with the active assistance of Napoleon which plunders the conquered countries) and it governs his dismantling during the fall of the Emperor (in two times). The museum is increased by Percier and Fontaine, which builds the wing of the street of Rivoli.

Other transformations take place under Napoleon III and in particular the realization of the great intention . But in 1871 the museum is burnt at the time of the Commune, and the architect Hector-Martin Lefuel must rebuild part of the buildings. The Tuileries will never be rebuilt, and after several years of deliberation, the ruins are shaven in 1882.

Large Louvre

See also: Large Louvre

Under the first mandate of François Mitterrand, the decision is made to give again with the museum the Richelieu wing which shelters the ministry for Finances (which will be rehoused in a new building with Bercy). Important work is then completed under the direction of Ieoh Ming Pei, the museum is refitted and increased considerably. The construction of a new entry in form of pyramid transforms the appearance of the museum.

History of acquisitions

The museum was initially constituted thanks to the royal collections, primarily of tables (approximately 2  500 with died of Louis XVI). These collections essentially had been gathered by François I {{er}} (many Italian tables) and by Louis XIV (various orders, purchases, in particular 200 tables of the banker Everhard Jabach). One will add to the tables the crown jewels, which belonged to the museum as of its creation, and good number of sculptures coming from the museum from the French Monuments or of revolutionary seizures.

Then come the various seizures carried out in Europe during the Napoleonean Guerres, and the many objects coming from excavations carried out in Egypt or with the the Middle East. For what it is necessary to add the important gifts and legacies made to the museum, for example the Collection Edmond de Rothschild, and of many purchases throughout 19th and 20th centuries.

In other words, of works of various sources. On the level of the most known tables, the Mona Lisa (Léonard de Vinci) or the Belle Flower stand (Raphaël) belonged to the collection of François Ier (it acquired the Mona Lisa in 1519). the Wedding at Cana (Véronèse) comes from the plundering of a convent with Venice in 1798. The Jeune Beggar (Murillo) was bought by Louis XVI in 1782. the Lacemaker (Vermeer) or celebrates it Autoportrait with the thistle (Dürer) were bought by the museum respectively in 1870 and 1922. Lastly, the Christ in cross of the Greco did not cost anything the museum, which recovered it with the law courts of Prades (the Eastern Pyrenees) in 1908.

The two most famous statues of the museum are the Venus de Milo , discovered in 1820 and acquired the same year by the ambassador of France near the Turkish government, and the Victoire de Samothrace , which was discovered of pieces in 1863 on the island of Samothrace by Charles Champoiseau, archeologist and vice-consul of France with Andrinople.

Principal recent acquisitions

  • Seaside with the moonlight of Caspar David Friedrich. Asset in 2000 thanks to a gift of the Company of the friends of Louvre.
  • Bust of Charles X according to François-Joseph Bosio. Gift of Misters Bernard Dragesco and Didier Cramoisan in 2000.
  • Diadem of the duchess of Angouleme (1819 - 1820) by the brothers Frederic and Évrard Bapst. Asset in 2002 thanks to the Funds of the inheritance.
  • the dead cat of Theodore Géricault. Asset in 2003 thanks to a gift of the Company of the friends of Louvre.
  • Head of horse, Greek marble of the Life front century. J. - C. Acquired on October 7th 2004. See
  • Portrait of Ferdinand-Philippe of Orleans, duke of Orleans (1842) of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. Asset in 2006 thanks to the patronage of company of the Axa Group.

Direction of the museum

Conservatives

  • Alive Dominique Denon

Presidents

Various collections

The museum of Louvre counts currently various very rich collections of works of art coming from civilizations, cultures and varied times. It is rich of approximately 300  000 parts, of which only 35  000 are exposed.

Eastern antiquities

The department of Eastern Antiquities preserves objects coming from an area located between current the India and the Mediterranean.

Since the Neolithic , many civilizations followed one another in this area, where one in particular sees appearing a political administration, military and religious. It is also the cradle of the writing, which makes its appearance towards -3300 with Uruk, in Mésopotamie.

The museum of Louvre counts three collections concerned with this department, which are distributed according to geographical and cultural units:

. Cultural projects and scientists are also in hand between the two museums.

The museum proposes also lecture visits and workshops for the adults and the children, and more generally an important educational action plan. Louvre has for that powerful tools of which an auditorium where proceed conferences, debates, meetings of reading or concerts.

For 2002, the museum received: 5707559 visits:

  • : 3351539 paying visits (58,7%)
  • : 550846 visits of subscribers (9,6%)
  • : 1805174 free visits (31,7%)

  • : 3740320 paying visits;
  • : 1944400 free visits.
    • Source: Frequentation of Louvre 2003 (pdf)

    N.B.: this Doc. became inaccessible (404 not found); more figures that they gave for 2002 differed somewhat from what is mentioned above. -->

    For this same year the museum spent 73  530  000 € except wages of the permanent personnel, for receipts of 90  380  000 € (including 57,8% pennies forms of subsidies). In 2006, the annual budget was of 186 million euros; 60% of the receipts come from the public allocations and 40% of the own resources (tickets, private Mécénat and gifts).

    Since January 1996, the entry with the museum of Louvre is free for all 1st Sunday of each month. This measurement thus made it possible to make return to the museum, the “national” visitors; indeed, this free Sunday is the only day in the month when the foreign visitors are minority in Louvre.

    Since first September 2004, entry of Louvre is become paying for teachers (except for those which bring pupils who pay or for those which pay a subscription), the French artists who are not members of the House of the Artists and the foreign artists. On the other hand, the employees of Total, company patron of the museum of the Louvre which financed the restoration of the Galerie of Apollo, have an free access and unlimited.

    Louvre in the literature and the cinema

    Literature

    • the Pole-axe , novel of Emile Zola (1877), comprises a famous visit of Louvre, carried out at the time of the marriage of Gervaise and Coupeau. The wedding saunters in the corridors and the staircases and ends up being lost, under the amused glance of the guards and other visitors.
    • The Da Vinci Code , novel of Dan Brown (2003), adapted to the cinema by Ron Howard.

    Cinema

    Museum depend on the administrative public corporation of Louvre

    The National museum Eugene-Delacroix from now on is attached to the museum of Louvre, although being in a different building. Being too modest to be with him only a public corporation, the legal solution simplest which was found was to entrust management of it to Louvre. The preserving one of the museum is Arlette Serullaz.

    The Louvre-Lens

    Most of works being in the reserves, it was decided to create an antenna of Louvre in the north of Paris. Six cities were candidates with this establishment, Amiens, Arras, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Calais, Valencian Lens and . The November 29th 2004, at the time of a visit with Lens, the Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin made known the choice of this city.

    The project, whose control of work was entrusted to the Japanese cabinet architecture SANAA of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, should concretize in 2010 by the opening of a new establishment able to receive between 500 and 600 major pieces, in alternation with the Parisian museum. It should accommodate 500  000 visitors per annum.

    See also: the Louvre-Lens

    “Louvre Abu Dhabi”

    The French government and the emirate prepare a museum having to open its doors in 2012. The emirate projects to have an annual income of 40 million euro. On its side, it must pay 70 million at the International agency of the Museums of France and between 400 and 600 million euro for which the French museums will organize road shows and will lend works (initially 300, the number having to increase while the museum increases). During the first 30 years, the new museum will have the right to use name " Louvre". The agreement was signed on Tuesday, March 6 by the Minister for the Culture Donnedieu de Vabres.

    Polemics

    In the World dated December 12th, 2006, an article signed by Francoise Cachin, Jean Clair and critical Roland Recht violememment the marketing policy of certain French museums, particularly paying prèts from Louvre in Atlanta and especially the creation of the " Louvre Abu-Dhabi". Their position met a broad echo at the professionals of Article a petition, published in the Platform of Art , was signed by more than 5000 people of which many historians of art and conservatives. It received during a time a certain press coverage

    Gallery

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