Louvre, << loov or LOO vruh, >> is one of the largest and most famous art museums in the world. The Louvre covers more than 40 acres (16 hectares) on the north bank of the Seine River in Paris. The Louvre was built as a residence for the kings of France, but today it exhibits some of the world’s greatest art treasures.
The Louvre has numerous large galleries. Many paintings are exhibited in the Grand Gallery, which is more than 1,300 feet (400 meters) long. The Louvre has especially fine collections of Egyptian, Greek, Asian, Roman, and Islamic art. It also has an outstanding collection of paintings and sculptures of the 1800’s as well as decorative art. The most famous works in the Louvre include the Greek sculptures Venus de Milo and Winged Victory and the Mona Lisa by the Italian painter Leonardo da Vinci.
Loading the player...Glass pyramid near the Louvre, Paris
King Philip II originally built the Louvre as a fortress in about 1200. King Charles V had the building remodeled into a fortified country house during the mid-1300’s. The Louvre began to take on its present appearance in the mid-1500’s. In 1546, King Francis I decided to transform the building into a palace that would rival the greatest structures of Renaissance Italy. Francis hired the French architect Pierre Lescot to direct construction. Jean Goujon, a French sculptor, decorated the palace and its grounds with statues inspired by Greek and Roman models. Later kings added large courts and long wings to the original building.
Loading the player...Venus de Milo
The period of expansion ended in 1670 with the completion of the Louvre’s east front designed by Claude Perrault. A few years later, Louis XIV moved the royal court to a new palace at Versailles, near Paris. In 1793, during the French Revolution, the revolutionary government opened the Louvre as a public museum to display works from the captured royal collection. Construction on the museum resumed under Napoleon I in the early 1800’s, and the Louvre gained its modern form in the mid-1800’s with the completion of two wings.
A major expansion and modernization project designed by architect I. M. Pei began in 1984. The first sections opened to the public in 1989, including a glass pyramid by Pei that serves as the entrance to the museum. A gallery devoted to Islamic art opened in 2012. Also in 2012, the Louvre opened a branch museum in the city of Lens in northern France. In 2017, a new museum, called the Louvre Abu Dhabi, opened in the United Arab Emirates.
See also Goujon, Jean; Paris (Famous buildings).
