The 20 Most Famous Paintings At The Louvre Museum, Paris

It would take you around 200 days to see each of the 35,000 works of art on display at the museum if you took 30 seconds to see each and every piece. niood is therefore listing the 20 Most Famous Paintings At The Louvre Museum, Paris:

1. Mona Lisa, 1503-1506 – Leonardo da Vinci

Dimensions: 77 cm x 53 cm
Location: Louvre Museum (since 1797)
Created: 1503
Period: Renaissance
Subject: Lisa Gherardini
Medium: Oil Paint

The Mona Lisa is an oil painting by Italian artist, inventor, and writer Leonardo da Vinci. Likely completed in 1506, the piece features a portrait of a seated woman set against an imaginary landscape. Rendered similarly to Renaissance portrayals of the Virgin Mary, the piece features a female figure—believed by most to be Lisa Gherardini, the wife of cloth and silk merchant Francesco Giocondo—from the waist up. She is shown seated in a loggia, or a room with at least one open side. Behind her is a hazy and seemingly isolated landscape imagined by the artist and painted using sfumato, a technique resulting in forms “without lines or borders, in the manner of smoke or beyond the focus plane.” Her gaze is another bewitching part of the composition. Many believe that her eyes follow you across the room, making her an active participant when being viewed, rather than remaining an object to look upon. In addition to its mysterious appearance, her expression has resonated most strongly with art historians for its possible symbolism, as many believe it to be a clever “visual representation of the idea of happiness suggested by the word ‘gioconda’ in Italian.”

2. Liberty Leading the People, 1830 – Eugène Delacroix

Period: Romanticism
Created: 1830
Location: Louvre Museum (since 2013)

Liberty Leading the People (French: La Liberté guidant le peuple) is a painting by Eugène Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled King Charles X of France. A woman of the people with a Phrygian cap personifying the concept of Liberty leads a varied group of people forward over a barricade and the bodies of the fallen, holding the flag of the French Revolution – the tricolour, which again became France’s national flag after these events – in one hand and brandishing a bayonetted musket with the other. The figure of Liberty is also viewed as a symbol of France and the French Republic known as Marianne. The painting is often confused for depicting the French Revolution.

3. The Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819 – Théodore Géricault

Dimensions: 4.91 m x 7.16 m
Period: Romanticism
Location: Louvre Museum
Medium: Oil on canvas

The subject depicted is the artist’s dramatic interpretation of the events beginning on July 2, 1816, when a French navy frigate crashed on its way to colonies in West Africa. The appointed governor of the colony and the top-ranking officers in the party left on the ship’s six lifeboats leaving the remaining 147 passengers to be crowded onto a hastily made raft. When the raft proved too cumbersome, in a horrific act of cowardice and fear, the ship’s leader cut the ropes to the raft. Left to fend for themselves for 13 days, the passengers eventually resorted to cannibalism. When rescued by a passing British ship, only 15 men were left alive, of whom 5 died before they were able to reach land. When the public learned of this, it became an international tragedy and a searing indictment of the current French government.

4. The Coronation of Napoleon, 1805-1807 – Jacques-Louis David

Dimensions: 6.21 m x 9.79 m
Created: 21 December 1805–November 1807
Medium: Oil on canvas
Locations: Louvre Museum (since 1889), Louvre Museum (since 1808)

“The Coronation of Napoleon” by Jacques-Louis David shows all eyes turned towards Napoleon and the crown. He is the central subject of this composition. Napoleon is standing, dressed in coronation robes similar to those of Roman emperors. The coronation of Napoleon as Emperor that took place on Sunday, December 2, 1804, was a masterful act of propaganda.

This painting, which is a large imposing painting at almost 10 meters (33 ft) wide by 6 meters (20 ft) tall, was part of the propaganda effort. Napoleon wanted to establish the legitimacy of his imperial reign and new nobility. With this objective, he designed a ceremony, unlike that of any other in the history of coronations.

5. The Wedding at Cana, 1563 – Paolo Veronese

Dimensions: 6.77 m x 9.9 m
Location: Louvre Museum
Created: 1562–1563
Medium: Oil on canvas

Veronese’s Wedding Feast at Cana combines elements of several different styles, adapting the Venetian colorito philosophy of Titian to the compositional disegno of the High Renaissance – exemplified by the work of Leonardo, Raphael, and Michelangelo. To this he added one or two characteristics of Mannerism, as well as a quantity of allegorical and symbolic features.

The content of the painting also consists of a complex mixture of the sacred and the profane, religious and secular, theatrical and mundane, European and Oriental. Depicted in the grand style of contemporary Venetian society, the banquet takes place within a courtyard flanked by Doric and Corinthian columns and bordered by a low balustrade. In the distance can be seen an arcaded tower, designed by the Padua-born architect Andrea Palladio. In the centre-foreground, a group of musicians are playing various lutes and stringed instruments. The musical figures include the four great painters of Venice: Veronese himself (dressed in white, playing the viola da gamba), Jacopo Bassano (on flute), Tintoretto (violin), and Titian (dressed in red, playing the violoncello).

6. Oath of the Horatii, 1784 – Jacques-Louis David

Created: 1784
Medium: Oil on canvas
Location: Louvre, Paris
Dimensions: 329.8 cm × 424.8 cm (129.8 in × 167.2 in)

Oath of the Horatii (French: Le Serment des Horaces), is a large painting by the French artist Jacques-Louis David painted in 1784 and now on display in the Louvre in Paris. The painting immediately became a huge success with critics and the public, and remains one of the best known paintings in the Neoclassical style.

It depicts a scene from a Roman legend about a seventh-century BC dispute between two warring cities, Rome and Alba Longa, and stresses the importance of patriotism and masculine self-sacrifice for one’s country. Instead of the two cities sending their armies to war, they agree to choose three men from each city; the victor in that fight will be the victorious city.

7. The Lacemaker, 1669-1670 – Johannes Vermeer

Completed: 1670
Location: Louvre Museum
Period: Dutch Golden Age
Dimensions: 24.5 cm × 21 cm (9.6 in × 8.3 in)
Medium: Oil on canvas

The girl is set against a blank wall, probably because the artist sought to eliminate any external distractions from the central image. As with his The Astronomer (1668) and The Geographer (1669), that the artist likely undertook careful study before he executed the work; the art of lacemaking is portrayed closely and accurately. Vermeer probably used a camera obscura while composing the work: many optical effects typical of photography can be seen, in particular the blurring of the foreground. By rendering areas of the canvas as out-of-focus, Vermeer is able to suggest depth of field in a manner unusual of Dutch Baroque painting of the era.

8. The Turkish Bath, 1862 – Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

Dimensions: 108 cm × 110 cm (42 1/2 in × 43 5/16 in)
Location: Louvre Museum
Medium: Oil on canvas glued to wood
Genres: History painting, Genre art

The Turkish Bath (Le Bain Turc) is an oil painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres. It depicts a group of nude women in the bath of a harem, and is painted in a highly erotic style that evokes both the Near East and earlier western styles associated with mythological subject matter. Painted on canvas laid down on wood, it measures 108 x 108 cm.

9. Death Of The Virgin, 1602 – Caravaggio

Period: Baroque
Location: Louvre Museum
Medium: Oil Paint
Dimensions: 369 cm × 245 cm (145 in × 96 in)
Year: 1604–1606, 1602

The painting recalls Caravaggio’s Entombment in the Vatican in scope, sobriety, and the photographic naturalism. The figures are nearly life-sized. Mary lies reclined, clad in a simple red dress. The lolling head, the hanging arm, the swollen, spread feet depict a raw and realistic view of the Virgin’s mortal remains. Caravaggio completely abandons the iconography traditionally used to indicate the holiness of the Virgin. In this cast-off body, nothing of the respectful representation found in devotional paintings remains.

10. Dante And Virgil In Hell, 1850 – Eugène Delacroix

Subject: Divine Comedy
Dimensions: 281 cm × 225 cm (111 in × 89 in)
Year: 1850
Medium: Oil on canvas

The painting depicts a scene from Dante’s Divine Comedy, which narrates a journey through Hell by Dante and his guide Virgil. In the scene the author and his guide are looking on as two damned souls are entwined in eternal combat. One of the souls is an alchemist and heretic named Capocchio. He is being bitten on the neck by the trickster Gianni Schicchi, who had used fraud to claim another man’s inheritance.

11. The Virgin Of The Rocks, 1483–1486 – Leonardo da Vinci

Year: 1483–1486
Type: Oil on panel (transferred to canvas)
Dimensions: 199 cm × 122 cm (78.3 in × 48.0 in)
Location: Louvre, Paris

The Virgin of the Rocks in the Louvre is considered by most art historians to be the earlier of the two and dates from around 1483–1486. Most authorities agree that the work is entirely by Leonardo. It is about 8 cm (3 in) taller than the London version. The first certain record of this picture dates from 1625, when it was in the French royal collection. It is generally accepted that this painting was produced to fulfill a commission of 1483 in Milan. It is hypothesised that this painting was privately sold by Leonardo and that the London version was painted at a later date to fill the commission. There are a number of other theories to explain the existence of two paintings. This painting is regarded as a perfect example of Leonardo’s “sfumato” technique.

12. “The Battles” Of The Granicus River, 1669 – Charles Le Brun

Year: 1669
Type: Oil on canvas, 470 x 1265 cm
Location: Musée du Louvre, Paris

This vast canvas is part of a series of four commissioned by Louis XIV from Le Brun. It is a cartoon for a tapestry woven at the Gobelins manufactory in Paris. The final clash between the troops of Alexander and those of the Persian king Darius took place on the plain of Gaugamela, near Arbela (in modern-day Iraq). Le Brun depicted the moment when, the Macedonians having gained the upper hand, Darius prepares to flee on a horse brought to him by a groom.

13. The Battle Between Love And Chastity, 1503 – Perugino

Location: Louvre Museum
Created: 1503–1503
Medium: Oil Paint
Period: High Renaissance
Support: Canvas

The painting, over a background with gently steeped hills, portrays a fight between the symbolic figures of Love and Chastity. The theme was similar to other commissioned for the studiolo. Among the numerous mythological figures are Minerva, Diana, Venus, Anteros, nymphs, fauns and others. In the background are depicted several mythological episodes showing the victory of Chastity over Carnal Love, such as Apollo and Daphne, Jupiter and Europa, Mercury and Glaucera, Polyphemus and Galatea, Pluto and Proserpina, and Neptune with the nymph transforming into a carrion crow.

14. The Virgin, Saint Anne, And The Child Playing With A Lamb, 1509 – Leonardo da Vinci

Year: c. 1501–1519
Medium: Oil on wood
Subject: Virgin and Child with Saint Anne
Dimensions: 130 cm × 168,4 cm (51 in × 663 in)
Location: Louvre, Paris

The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne is an unfinished oil painting of c. 1503 by Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci depicting Saint Anne, her daughter the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. Christ is shown grappling with a sacrificial lamb symbolizing his Passion as the Virgin tries to restrain him.

15. Minerva Expelling The Vices From The Garden Of Virtue, 1502 – Andrea Mantegna

Dimensions: 1.6 m x 1.92 m
Location: Louvre Museum
Created: 1502
Medium: Tempera
Period: Renaissance
Subject: Minerva

The triumph was the second picture painted by Mantegna for Isabella d’Este’s studiolo (cabinet), after the Parnassus of 1497. It portrays a marsh enclosed by a tall fence, ruled over by the Vices, portrayed as hideous figures and identified by scrolls in a typically medieval way. Idleness is chased by Minerva, who is also rescuing Diana, goddess of chastity, from being raped by a Centaur, symbol of concupiscence. Next to Minerva is a tree with human features. High in the sky are the three primary moral virtues required to perfect the appetitive powers: Justice, Temperance and Fortitude.

16. The Pastoral Concert, 1509 – Titian

Location: Musée de Louvre, Paris, France
Dimensions: 105 x 136.5 cm
Created: 1509–1509
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Periods: Renaissance, High Renaissance, Italian Renaissance

The great painting in the Louvre entitled the Pastoral Concert (also the Pastoral Symphony and the Fête champêtre) is mysterious both in meaning and in authorship, but it has been one of the more influential paintings in the museum, particularly on nineteenth-century painters who came to Paris to see it.  It has been attributed to the greatest of Venetian painters, Titian, as well as to one of his teachers in Venice, Giorgione (it was first attributed to Giorgione in 1671).  Scholars have gone back and forth over the years in their opinions about which artist painted the scene, but recently the tide has favored Titian as the hand responsible for the work at a rather early point in his career (Titian would continue to paint for over sixty years after the Pastoral Concert was completed).  The canvas itself was not cleaned for many years, and so in photographs it will come across as having a yellowish tint.  However, when the painting was completed in the early sixteenth century, the colors most likely were much more vibrant and distinct.

17. The Rape Of The Sabine Women, 1637–1638 – Nicolas Poussin

Dimensions: 1.59 m x 2.08 m
Location: Louvre Museum
Subject: The Rape of the Sabine Women
Created: 1637–1638
Medium: Oil Paint
Periods: Baroque, Classicism

Poussin’s second version, entitled The Rape of the Sabine Women, is essentially a recreation of his original work and was likely completed around 1637–1638. The architectural setting of this work is more developed than in the original. This painting currently resides in the Louvre Museum in Paris. According to the Louvre, painting multiple versions of one subject was not uncommon throughout Poussin’s career.

18. St. Francis Of Assisi Receiving Stigmata, 1295–1300 – Giotto di Bondone

Location: Louvre Museum
Subject: Saint Francis of Assisi
Created: 1295–1300
Medium: Tempera and gold on panel
Periods: Renaissance, Italian Renaissance, Italian Renaissance painting

Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata is a panel painting in tempera by the Italian artist Giotto, painted around 1295–1300 for the Church of Saint Francis in Pisa and it is now in the Musée du Louvre in Paris. It shows an episode from the life of Saint Francis of Assisi, and is 314 cm high (to the top of the triangule) by 162 cm wide. It is signed OPUS IOCTI FLORENTINI (“Work of Florentine Giotto”).

19. The Card Sharp with the Ace of Diamonds, 1635 – Georges de La Tour

Dimensions: 1.06 m x 1.46 m
Location: Louvre, Paris
Created: 1635–1635
Medium: Oil on canvas

The Card Sharp with the Ace of Diamonds is an oil painting produced around 1636-1638 by Georges de La Tour, It is now in the Louvre, which bought it in 1972. Though its commissioner is unknown, it is signed Georgius De La Tour fecit under the card sharp’s elbow and in the shadow of the tablecloth.

The work depicts a card game in which the well-to-do young man on the right is being fleeced of his money by the other players, who both appear to be complicit in the scheme. The card sharp on the left is actually in the process of retrieving the ace of diamonds from behind his back.

20. The Moneylender and His Wife, 1514 – Quentin Matsys

Completed: 1514
Location: Louvre, Paris
Dimensions: 70.5 cm × 67 cm (27.8 in × 26 in)
Medium: Oil on panel

A man, who is weighing the jewels and pieces of gold on the table in front of him sits next to his wife who is reading a book of devotion with an illustration of the Virgin and Child. The couple is not dressed as members of nobility, but rather as well-to-do burghers of Antwerp, where the painting was made. At the time, Antwerp had grown with the influx of many southern immigrants fleeing the Spanish Inquisition. Among this international community there was a demand for money-changers and money-lenders, as international commerce was increasing in the port city.