The Louvre: The Many Lives of the World's Most Famous Museum

by James Gardner

Overview

The fascinating and little-known story of the Louvre, from its inception as a humble fortress to its transformation into the palatial residence of the kings of France and then into the world’s greatest art museum.

Some ten million people from all over the world flock to the Louvre each year to enjoy its incomparable art collection. Yet few of them are aware of the remarkable history of that place and of the buildings themselves―a fascinating story that historian James Gardner elegantly chronicles in the first full-length history of the Louvre in English.

More than 7,000 years ago, men and women camped on a spot called le Louvre for reasons unknown; a clay quarry and a vineyard supported a society there in the first centuries AD. A thousand years later, King Philippe Auguste of France constructed a fortress there in 1191, just outside the walls of a city far smaller than the Paris we know today. Intended to protect the capital against English soldiers stationed in Normandy, the fortress became a royal residence under Charles V two centuries later, and then the monarchy’s principal residence under the great Renaissance king François I in 1546. It remained so until 1682, when Louis XIV moved his entire court to Versailles. Thereafter the fortunes of the Louvre languished until the tumultuous days of the French Revolution when, during the Reign of Terror in 1793, it first opened its doors to display the nation’s treasures. Ever since―through the Napoleonic era, the Commune, two World Wars, to the present―the Louvre has been a witness to French history, and expanded to become home to a legendary collection, including such masterpieces as the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo, whose often-complicated and mysterious origins form a spectacular narrative that rivals the building’s grand stature.

Includes a 16-page full-color insert, featuring images illustrating the history of the Louvre, a full-color endpaper map detailing the Louvre’s evolution from fortress to museum, and black-and-white images throughout the narrative.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802148780
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	04/19/2022
Pages:	416
Sales rank:	320,825
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.70(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

James Gardner is an American art critic and literary critic based in New York and Buenos Aires and the author, most recently, of Buenos Aires: The Biography of a City. His writings have appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the New Republic, and the British Spectator. He was the art critic at the New York Post and wrote architecture criticism for the New York Observer, before serving as the architecture critic at the New York Sun. He is now a contributing editor at The Magazine Antiques. This is his sixth book.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Introduction xv

1 The Origins of the Louvre 1

2 The Louvre in the Renaissance 29

3 The Louvre of the Early Bourbons 67

4 The Louvre and the Sun King 103

5 The Louvre Abandoned 141

6 The Louvre and Napoleon 173

7 The Louvre under the Restoration 215

8 The Nouveau Louvre of Napoleon III 237

9 The Louvre in Modern Times 289

10 The Creation of the Contemporary Louvre 333

Epilogue 355

Glossary 361

Notes 363

Bibliography 371

Image credits 376

Index 377

Editorial Reviews

★ 03/09/2020

Art critic Gardner (Buenos Aires) traces the turbulent history of Paris’s Louvre Museum from fortress to castle to center of France’s cultural universe in this engrossing account, revealing a building that Gardner calls “as great a work of art as anything it contains.” The Louvre was a nexus of French art, architecture, and culture, and Gardner argues that through the Louvre one can see the growth of “Paris itself.” The site was originally a campground 7,000 years ago; in 1191, King Philippe Auguste constructed a fortress there; a century and a half later, Charles V had remodeled the Louvre into a castle, which in the early 16th century became the primary residence for King Francois I. After Louis XIV moved the royal court to Versailles in 1682, the Louvre suffered neglect until it was converted into a public art museum in 1793, during the French Revolution. In elegant prose, Gardner describes how over the next 200 years the Louvre endured constant evolution and construction as its reputation as a leading repository for art treasures grew and it became the world’s most famous museum (“there is something at once presumptuous and miraculous in its emergence out of nothing”). Fast-paced and evocative, this is a must for Francophones as well as art and architecture lovers. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Praise for The Louvre

“Courageous and erudite . . . James Gardner is bold to take in, and take on, what few mortals have the chance or the stamina to do . . . Open the book and enjoy the visit.”—Washington Post

“Mysterious in effect, the Louvre is delightfully mysterious in history, too, as James Gardner shows in The Louvre . . . Gardner relates the long story of the Louvre, starting around the thirteenth century, when it was simply a castle, through its elevation as a palace, and then, in the seventeenth century, its expansion into service as an office building for French royalty . . . Gardner’s muscular, impatiently expert prose recalls Robert Hughes in his city books.”—Adam Gopnik, New Yorker

“I hadn’t realized just how mythically resonant a museum could be until I read James Gardner’s eloquent encomium to the Louvre . . . This history is told with all the great verve, insight, and eye for detail that Mr. Gardner’s criticism is noted for . . . [His] passion also invites us to share his affection—and to plan a visit.”—Wall Street Journal

“An eye-opener . . . Gardner makes every phase and transformation vivid . . . Anyone curious about how the Louvre into its present configuration will find this diligent book richly informative.”—Boston Globe

“[An] extensive exploration of the Parisian cultural institution.”—Smithsonian Magazine

“Chronicles the Parisian icon’s 800-year evolution from workaday fortress to beloved art institution.”—New York Post

“Magisterial . . . The whole book is enlivened by his stories of the people involved, and by the lyricism with which he describes certain rooms . . . The book does what all good books of this kind should do: it makes me want to go back to the Louvre and see some of the things he writes about and that I never noticed before.”—Midwest Book Review

“Engrossing . . . In elegant prose, Gardner describes how over the next 200 years [after 1793] the Louvre endured constant evolution and construction as its reputation as a leading repository for art treasures grew and it became the world’s most famous museum. Fast-paced and evocative, this is a must for Francophones as well as art and architecture lovers.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“The evolution of the Louvre reflects the political, intellectual, and aesthetic history of France . . . The author offers a vivid chronicle of strife, wars, rivalries, and aspirations culminating in the present grand architectural complex . . . A richly detailed journey through a palimpsest of the past.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Comprehensive . . . Recommended for readers interested in the history of France, the history of architecture, and museology.”—Library Journal

“James Gardner makes the walls talk. He traces the many metamorphoses of the Louvre, revealing how from its humble origins as a fortress it has come to occupy the heart of Paris and the center of French—and indeed world—culture. His remarkable achievement is to show us how the building is every bit as spectacular and as fascinating as the treasures it holds.”—Ross King, bestselling author of Brunelleschi’s Dome and Mad Enchantment

“With its fast-moving and rich narrative, this truly excellent book needed to be written: the fascinating and turbulent story of the Louvre as a royal palace has been largely eclipsed by its much shorter and more famous life as a museum. Here both parts of its long history have been splendidly recounted.”—Philippe de Montebello, Director Emeritus, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Praise for Buenos Aires

“Excellent . . . A treasure for those who have visited the city or plan to soon.”―New Criterion

“You come away from Buenos Aires with a strong desire to visit Buenos Aires―or if you already have, to return and see all the things that escaped your notice.”―Weekly Standard

“Gardner has written a love story for the second largest city in South America, and his account should be required reading for city planners, architecture students, or those who are interested in how a city goes from humble beginnings to the ‘Paris of the South.’”―Library Journal

“A genial historical tour conducted by an affectionate docent with a keen eye.”―Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

04/01/2020

Gardner (Buenos Aires) charts the progress of the Louvre in this comprehensive text. Starting as a fortress in the Middle Ages, the Louvre became a royal residence under Charles V and then the French monarch's primary abode under Renaissance king François I. In the late 17th century, when Louis XIV abandoned the estate and moved to the Palace of Versailles, the Louvre was used to house the five great académies of France, including the Académie Royale de Peintre et de Sculpture and the Académie Française, finally opening as a museum in 1793 during the French Revolution. From here, the progression of the Louvre's art collecting is examined from the treasures plundered during Napoleon Bonaparte's military campaigns as well as works acquired from archaeological excavations, donations from collectors, and savvy purchases by the museum's curators. A detailed, clearly marked floor plan helps readers navigate the different wings of this enormous and complicated building from the Louvre's days as a palace under various rulers to those as a museum. VERDICT Recommended for readers interested in the history of France, the history of architecture, and museology.—Sandra Rothenberg, Framingham State Univ. Lib., MA

Library Journal

The combination of visually descriptive writing and thoughtful narration by Graham Halstead transports the listener to the famous Louvre Museum in Paris. Without actually going there, one can imagine walking the great halls with royalty and artists over many centuries. Halstead enhances this audiobook with frequent passages in French as he tells of how the building began as a castle fortress in 1190 and progressed through the reigns of many kings until it became an art museum during the French Revolution in 1793. With his impeccable pacing and easygoing tone, Halstead describes the innovations of major architects from 1200 to 2011. To be sure, the visitor will hear about the MONA LISA and the VENUS DE MILO but will also walk the halls of history. J.E.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

AUGUST 2020 - AudioFile

2020-01-12
The evolution of the Louvre reflects the political, intellectual, and aesthetic history of France.

"Before the Louvre was a museum," writes art and literary critic Gardner (Buenos Aires: The Biography of a City, 2015, etc.), "it was a palace, and before that a fortress, and before that a plot of earth, much like any other." Drawing on scholarly sources that include the recently published three-volume Histoire du Louvre, the author offers a vivid chronicle of strife, wars, rivalries, and aspirations culminating in the present grand architectural complex, comprising nearly 400,000 objects, "a vast, indiscriminate cocktail of princely collections purchased or purloined over the course of centuries." Gardner focuses on several of France's rulers whose embrace of the arts shaped the future of the museum—e.g., Francois I, who brought the Italian Renaissance across the Alps as a patron and collector of works by Raphael, Michelangelo, Titian, and Leonardo, whom he lured from Italy. When Leonardo arrived in 1516, he had in his trunks three paintings, including the Mona Lisa, which has become the Louvre's most coveted attraction. In addition to collecting art, Francois took up the challenge of modernizing the royal residence, beginning "the 350-year process that would result in the Louvre as we know it today." The 17th-century monarch Louis XIII, though not particularly interested in art or architecture, assigned the renowned architect Jacques Lemercier to enact significant changes. As far as the art collection itself, Louis XIV, with "an unappeasable appetite for masterpieces," filled the Louvre with priceless treasures as well as quadrupling its size. But when Louis decided to move the court to Versailles in 1682, the Louvre fell into disrepair. After the American Revolution, repayment of the Colonies' debt to France funded considerable repair and reconstruction. A small portion of the palace opened as a public museum—the Musée Central des Arts—only in 1793, in the midst of the Reign of Terror. Gardner cites Napoleon III, who ruled France from 1848 to 1870, as decisive in transforming the Louvre into its modern iteration.

A richly detailed journey through a palimpsest of the past.

Kirkus Reviews