The Louvre: European Paintings

Michel Laclotte and Jean-Pierre Cuzin illustrate over four hundred of the Louvre's most important paintings in colour, and provide a history of the Louvre's development from a royal collection initiated by François I to an incomparable national museum. The patronage of successive French monarchs established a character of magnificent canvases, which is today complemented by careful purchasing. The authors discuss the influence which contemporary taste, the idiosyncrasies of individual collectors, and the huge art hauls of the French Revolution had upon the growing collections, and outline the Louvre's future plans for acquisition and display. The atmosphere is one of centuries of flux, as paintings were won and hung in the elaborate galleries, soon perhaps to be removed as they were reclaimed after the Revolution or as the art historians promoted newly-declared masters to take their place.

Each illustration was specially photographed for this book, and is accompanied by a detailed caption. Additional explanatory notes describe the background of style, politics, or provenance behind some of the paintings depicted, and a chronology records the principal dates in the construction of the Palais du Louvre and the creation of the Museum.