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The Louvre, a former royal palace, is known for its collection of celebrated paintings collected by the French kings, including the Mona Lisa of Leonardo Da Vinci. The museum received 9 million visitors in 2025 and is regularly ranked as the most visited art museum in the world. Twenty-seven percent of the visitors in 2012 were French, while 73 percent were from other countries.
It is located on the Right Bank of the Seine and home to some of the most canonical works of Western art, including the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and Winged Victory [all of which are featured in this post]. The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built in the late 12th to 13th century under Philip II. Remnants of the Medieval Louvre fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to urban expansion, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function, and in 1546 Francis I converted it into the primary residence of the French kings.
The building was redesigned and extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculptures. In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nation's masterpieces. The palace and exhibition space was expanded in the 19th century and again in the 20th.
The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being royal and confiscated church property. Because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed from 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon, after the Napoleonic looting of art in Europe, Egypt, and Syria, and the museum was renamed Musée Napoléon, but after Napoleon's abdication, many works seized by his armies were returned to their original owners. The collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. --Wikipedia
The museum now houses more than 480,000 works of art.
The Louvre Pyramid is a large glass-and-metal entrance way and skylight designed by the Chinese-American architect I. M. Pei. The pyramid is in the main courtyard (Cour Napoléon) of the Louvre Palace in Paris, surrounded by three smaller pyramids. The large pyramid serves as the main entrance to the Louvre Museum, allowing light to the underground visitors hall, while also allowing sight lines of the palace to visitors in the hall, and through access galleries to the different wings of the palace. Completed in 1989 as part of the broader Grand Louvre project, it has become a landmark of Paris and a symbol of the museum. --Wikipedia
During the construction of the Louvre Pyramid, the bases of the keep and the two walls were cleared. A major excavation campaign resulted in the discovery of hundreds of everyday life objects. They are now accessible to the public in a collection named Medieval Louvre which features the lower room. --Wikipedia
Grand sphinx from Tanis 1213-1203 BCE
Ceiling in the Salon Carré in the Denon Wing
Athena Parthenos is a statue dedicated in the Parthenon in Athens in 438 BCE
Cupid by Lysippos between 338 and 335 BCE
Winged Victory of Samothrace or Nike of Samothrace 2nd century BCE
Venus de Milo created between 130 and 100 BCE
Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss by Antonio Canova between 1787 and 1793
Replica of a statue of Athena, original by Kreilas around 430 BCE
The Raft of the Medusa (1818–1819) is a monumental, over-life-size oil painting by French Romantic artist Théodore Géricault. It depicts the horrific aftermath of the 1816 wreck of the French frigate Méduse, where 150 abandoned passengers and crew were set adrift on a makeshift raft, facing starvation, dehydration, and cannibalism.
In July 1816, the French naval frigate Méduse ran aground off the coast of Mauritania due to the incompetence of its captain, who was appointed by the newly restored Bourbon monarchy. Because there were not enough lifeboats, senior officers and politicians took the boats while 150 lower-class passengers and soldiers were forced onto a hastily built, 20-meter-wide wooden raft. The towline to the lifeboats was cut shortly after, leaving the raft to drift for 13 days. By the time a passing ship rescued them, only 15 men were still alive, having endured mutiny and starvation. The event quickly became an international scandal, exposing political corruption and gross negligence. --Wikipedia
Saint Jean Baptiste by Léonardo da Vinci about 1510-1520
Portrait of a Woman of the Court of Milan by Léonardo da Vinci about 1490-1497
Mona Lisa by Léonardo da Vinci about 1503
Pablo Picasso lived and worked in France for the majority of his adult life, making it the birthplace of Cubism and many of his most iconic masterpieces. He spent his time primarily between the bohemian art scene of Paris and the sunlit towns of the French Riviera. --Wikipedia
The Picasso Museum (see three images of the building below) houses many of Picassos most admired works, many of which he donated.
Buste d'homme (étude pour Les Demoiselles d'Avignon) by Pablo Picasso 1907
Trois Figures sous un arbre by Pablo Picasso 1908
Homme à la mandoline by Pablo Picasso 1911
Figures au bord de la mer by Pablo Picasso 1931
L'Aubade by Pablo Picasso 1942
Jacqueline Roque aux mains croisées by Pablo Picasso 1954
Deux Femmes courant sur la plage (La Course) by Pablo Picasso 1922
Next up, more of Paris beginning with the Panthéon
