The Musée du Louvre in Paris is in the midst of updating its French painting galleries in the Sully wing, part of an ongoing effort under Jean-Luc Martinez, named the museum’s director in 2013, to focus on the permanent displays. “We need to breathe new life into the museum to make its fabulous collection come alive…. I want to give the museum a complete makeover,” Martinez told The Art Newspaper in a 2014 interview.
The 19th-century French painting galleries, which have be rehung, are due to reopen today, 5 August. This follows the 18th-century galleries, home to masterpieces by artists like Boucher, Fragonard, Watteau and Chardin, reopened on 15 June with walls painted a new, clean colour scheme of grey and blue tones and a new presentation. A Louvre spokeswoman pointed to the importance of the reassessment of the state of the paintings, as well as their frames, during the work. She also mentioned that the museum will host several 18th-century exhibitions in 2016, including one on Hubert Robert, the Academy painter known for his depictions of idealised ruins, another factor in the rearrangement.
The 17th-century French painting galleries will be the next to get a facelift; a spokeswoman for the museum told The Art Newspaper that “there is no date [set] for the beginning of the work”, but that the galleries are expected to reopen some time in 2016.