20 Most Famous Paintings in The Louvre Museum, Paris

With 5,500 paintings in the collections of the Louvre Museum, choosing the top 20 is not easy. Some of the most famous masters in the world are on display in the Louvre, including Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci.

How did we choose our top 20? It was far from simple, but we went with what art evoked emotion in us.

This is not to say these are the only paintings to do so, but we had to cap the list somewhere, and 20 will give you a good feel for what to expect from the Louvre.

With any museum, it’s always a good idea to take a guided tour or book that delves deeper into the painting you are looking at. Bookmark this page in your browser to come back and reference each painting.

Our selections are each of aesthetic and historical interest and a true masterpiece of their time. We aim to give you as much background as possible to help you understand its story and its place in time.

Let’s get into what paintings are in the Louvre!

Famous Paintings in the Louvre

20 – The Turkish Bath

Artist: Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres
Created: 1862
Movement: Orientalist
Medium: Oil on canvas
Location: Sully Wing | Room 60

Perhaps the least recognized painter on our list, Jean-Auguste-Dominque Ingres was nevertheless famous for his time.

In 1862, at 82 years old, he painted The Turkish Bath, which depicts a group of nude women in the bath of a harem as fantasized by Western audiences and Ingres himself (the painter had a fascination with female nudity and is seen throughout many of his works).

While initially painted in a rectangular format, Ingres purposefully altered the painting by cutting the picture into a tondo form (circular).

It is believed to be based on a 1717 description of a Turkish harem by Lady Mary Montagu, where she mentions having viewed nearly two hundred women gathered by a pool.

Critics of his time found Ingres’ style bizarre due to his distortions of form and space. His style would go on to influence modernists like Picasso and Matisse.

19 – St. Francis of Assisi Receiving Stigmata

Artist: Giotto di Bondone
Created: 1295 – 1300
Movement: Byzantine
Medium: Tempera on Wood
Location: Denon Wing, Room 708

The Byzantine art style is often criticized for being “boring,” “stiff,” or “lacking emotion.” However, those that do are selling this style and St. Francis of Assisi Receiving Stigmata short.

The art style relies on gold leaf to help accentuate subjects and make objects in the foreground pop. It works particularly well for religious pieces, like the one shown above.

The painter behind St. Francis is still a matter of debate, but most people credit Giotto di Bondone.

Giotto created this painting with tempera and gold on a wooden panel for the Church of Saint Francis in Pisa. The painting depicts Saint Francis of Assisi receiving the stigmata during his prayer on Mount Alverno from a flying Christ.

It belonged to the church until 1813, when Napoleon Bonaparte looted and moved the art pieces to France.

St. Francis of Assisi Receiving Stigmata is credited for beckoning the end of the Byzantine art style. Unlike his contemporaries, Giotto introduces figures with emotion and a push towards interaction and storytelling not found in the style.

Giotto’s art would serve as a predecessor to the Renaissance and is historically vital for helping push boundaries.

The Louvre strategically placed St. Francis of Assisi Receiving Stigmata alongside other Byzantine art. When looking at each painting, notice that Giotto’s figures are more interactive with one another, show more emotion, and tell a more cohesive story.

While St. Francis is arguably Giotto’s most important work, his fresco Scrovegni Chapel is my favorite. It is a deviation from his Byzantine style. His use of color and story narration is second to few.

Scrovegni Chapel narrates the story and lives of the Virgin Mary and Christ, the Universal Judgement of man, and concludes with the story of human salvation.

St. Francis of Assisi Receiving Stigmata makes our list because it was the precursor to the Renaissance and, therefore, the Sistine Chapel, Mona Lisa, and Last Supper.

18 – Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman

Artist: Sandro Botticelli
Created: 1483 – 1486
Movement: Early Renaissance
Medium: Fresco
Location: Percier et Fontaine, Room 1

While The Birth of Venus, in Florence’s Uffizi Gallery, is widely regarded as Sandro Botticelli’s best work, Venus and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman and its companion A Young Man Being Introduced to the Seven Liberal Arts are masterworks in their own right.

Both companion pieces initially decorated the walls of Villa Lemmi. The Villa Lemmi is also relatively famous as it was owned by Giovanni Tornabuoni, uncle of Lorenzo de’ Medici and head of the Medici Bank in Rome.

Did you know Sandro Botticelli helped paint the Sistine Chapel?

While it’s not certain, historians believe they were commissioned for the wedding of Lorenzo de’ Medici to Giovanna of the Albizzi family.

Botticelli reportedly used Giovanna as his model, placing her in the company of Venus and the three Graces.

The scene depicted in the painting is an allegory of the act of giving rather than the gift itself.

Both companion frescoes were rediscovered in 1873 during the renovation of Villa Lemmi. They were found under a coat of whitewash, removed from the wall, and transferred to canvas.

They were subsequently transported to the Louvre, where they still remain.

17 – The Virgin, Saint Anne, and the Child Playing with a Lamb

Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Created: 1503 – 1519
Movement: Renaissance
Medium: Oil on Wood
Location: Denon Wing, Grand Galeriè 710 – 16

The Virgin, Saint Anne, and the Chid Playing with a Lamb has been heralded as a technical masterpiece since its completion.

Much like observers today traveling to the Louvre, Italian pilgrims in the 16th century flocked to see it for da Vinici’s complex techniques.

The painting was commissioned as the high altarpiece for Florence’s Chruch of Santissima Annunziata upon his return from Milan in 1500.

It is based on an earlier and equally famous drawing of The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St John which is now in the National Gallery of London.

The rocky backdrop is instantly recognizable for those familiar with da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks and the Mona Lisa. It was a landscape that da Vinci used throughout his career.

The subject of Mary and the Christ-child was a prevalent theme in Renaissance paintings as it was their only opportunity to present an image of these Christian figures.

In this work, da Vinci created a trinity of generations within the same family. The figures are strategically placed in a triangular grouping to keep your eyes moving up and down straight lines. Note the posture of Mary in combination with her mother, St. Anne, and the intertwining child and lamb.

While some may balk at me ranking this painting so low on the list, I feel the paintings ahead tell more in-depth stories and have had an even more significant impact on history.

Nearby Da Vinci Works:

25% of all Leonardo da Vinci paintings are in the Louvre Museum, and many are nearby. Here are some others you should see:

• La Belle Ferronière
• Portrait of Isabella d’Este
• Saint John the Baptist
• the Mona Lisa

16 – The Pastoral Concert

Artist: Titian
Created: 1508 – 1510
Movement: Venetian Renaissance
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Location: Denon Wing, Room 711

Although the artist is subject to debate, with some believing Giorgione the painter behind the work, The Pastoral Concert is now commonly attributed to Italian Renaissance master Titian.

Pastoral Concert offers an intimate moment between two friends on a shady hillside overlooking glens and mountains.

The lute player, a noble adorned in red and black, plays a tune to his companion, a young man with unkempt hair, no shoes, and wearing a coarse brown garment.

The two, so infatuated by the music and their companionship, are oblivious to all else around them.

Seated close by are two nude women. One holds a wooden flute, and the other is pouring water into a stone well.

Pastoral Concert, while a visually beautiful work of art, is highly regarded for its symbolism.

In 1509, when the painting was created, The Republic of Venice was quite turbulent amid the League of Cambrai war.

The Pastoral Concert is believed to be painted in response to the war and to provide refuge from its atrocities.

There are many ways to read the painting; one theory suggests that the women in the foreground are mere apparitions stemming from the two men’s fantasies of ideal beauty.

Another theory is that the women are a muse for tragic poetry and pastoral poetry, as described in Aristotle’s Poetics.

Regardless of how you choose to interpret the piece, it stands out as one of the best paintings in the Louvre.

If you’re interested in Titian, some of his greatest work is in the Accademia Gallery in Venice.

15 – The Rape of the Sabine Women

Artist: Nicolas Poussin
Created: 1637 – 38
Movement: French baroque
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Location: Richelieu Wing, Room 828

Not to be confused with Nicolas Poussin’s original version of the scene, The Abduction of the Sabine Women, which was painted a few years earlier, The Rape of the Sabine Women recreates one of the most famous stories in Roman history.

This story is so well known that numerous artists, most notably Peter Paul Rubens, have depicted their version of the account.

Poussin’s version, however, stands out as the best and is a testament to the artists’ love for Rome.

According to legend, Romulus (depicted with a red cape and gold armor on the left), having settled Rome with his warriors, attempted to negotiate marriages for them with the Sabine tribe.

When this failed to materialize, he organized a festival as a ruse and invited the Sabines. On Romulus’ signal, his warriors abducted each Sabine woman to provide Rome with future generations.

The women would give birth to Roman sons who created the longest-lasting and greatest empire in European history.

The painting and the story are a harsh reminder of where the empire began. The mindset of Roman pragmatism helped lead to the empire’s growth and some of its worst atrocities.

14 – La Gioconda (Mona Lisa)

Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Created: 1503 – 1505
Movement: Renaissance
Medium: Oil on Wood
Location: Denon Wing Room 711

You might be surprised to see the Mona Lisa at number fourteen.

In terms of fame, the Mona Lisa would be first on a list of famous paintings at the Louvre. However, in terms of emotion, it’s not as captivating as others.

Its aura stems from how famous it is rather than anything else.

Portraits, by nature, are supposed to be intimate and preserve the image of a person in time so that future generations can look back on them as we do with photographs of our loved ones.

Even still, its importance is not lost on me.

We live in a time where portraits saturate the internet. Anyone with a phone can take one, so it might be surprising to some that there was a time when only the wealthiest people had their likeness captured.

It was so costly that even the wealthiest of merchants in Renaissance Florence would only commission a single portrait in their lifetime. More than likeness, portraits were meant to show status and position.

To become the most famous painting in the world, the Mona Lisa would have to become an icon of the Renaissance and the world in general.

The Mona Lisa was likely painted for the wife of a Florentine merchant but was never delivered as da Vinci went to work for Francis I, the King of France.

The portrait would skyrocket into the zeitgeist when, on August 21, 1911, it was stolen by an Italian museum worker.

In what was declared the most significant art theft of the 20th century, the story of the Mona Lisa grew in popularity. By the time it was returned to the Louvre, people flocked to see it.

Seeing the Mona Lisa in person is quite sobering. You never realize the scale of a painting until you are standing in front of it. I didn’t know how small it was until we took a trip there in 2022.

If you can fight through the horde of people gathered to take a photo with it, let us know in the comment section below where you would place it on the list.

13 – The Lacemaker

Artist: Johannes Vermeer
Created: 1669 – 1671
Movement: Dutch Golden Age
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Location: Richelieu wing, Room 837

While Girl with a Pearl Earring (located in The Hague’s Mauritshuis) is undoubtedly the most famous Vermeer painting, The Lacemaker uses creative techniques to bring it to life.

The painting shows a young lacemaker concentrating on her task. The woman is set against a blank wall to eliminate distractions in the background and keep your eye focused on the subject.

It is widely believed that Vermeer used a camera obscura while composing the work. The camera obscura was the predecessor to the photographic cameras we know today (this video offers a concise breakdown of its use in paintings).

You can tell by Vermeer’s use of optical effects, such as blurring of the foreground. This out-of-focus area helps develop a depth of field not typically seen by other era paintings.

Vermeer also pushes the boundaries of his era in the way he depicts the girl’s hands, the t-cross that formers her eyes and nose, and the curls of her hair. Each is painted abstractly, which was unusual for Dutch Baroque paintings in the 17th century.

Vermeer’s boundary-defining techniques are why this comes in at number 13 on our list of paintings at the Louvre.

12 – The Battle Between Love and Chastity

Artist: Pietro Perugino
Created: 1503 – 1505
Movement: High Renaissance
Medium: Tempera on Canvas
Location: Department of Paintings

Commissioned for the studiolo of Isabella d’Este, Marchesa of Mantua, The Battle Between Love and Chastity is Perugino’s take on a battle between the symbolic figures of love and chastity.

This piece came relatively late in Perugino’s career after his art began to decline. Before Combat of Love and Chastity, the artist found himself repainting his earlier compositions. His contemporaries, quick to point out flaws in their peers, began publicly criticizing him for his work.

The idea for Combat of Love and Chastity was not Perugino’s. Instead, he was suggested a topic by d’Este’s court poet and then handed a drawing on which the painting had to be based.

It was very demanding on the Florentine painter, and he faced several setbacks. For example, when Perugino painted a naked Venus (the goddess of love, sex, beauty, and fertility), d’Este protested vigorously and demanded it be repainted.

Then again, in 1505, when he delivered the commissioned piece to d’Este, she was unsatisfied with its final product. She publically complained that it should have been done in oil to match her other commissioned works by Andrea Mantegna (Parnassus and Triumph of the Virtues – both of which are in the Louvre).

Perugino was paid just 100 ducats for the work (roughly the equivalent of $15,000 today). While that may sound like a lot of money for one painting, it took Perugino two years to finish it, and he left Florence to live a less demanding life.

Perugino would briefly make a comeback in 1508 to paint roundels on the ceiling of the Stanza dell’Incendio in the Vatican, but by this point, most viewed him as finished and surpassed by his pupils and contemporaries.

Knowing the story behind Combat of Love and Chastity makes it far more interesting than perhaps it first appears. Who hasn’t worked for a demanding boss that micromanages everything you do?

The history of this piece makes it the 12th best painting in the Louvre.

11 – Triumph of the Virtues

Artist: Andrea Mantegna
Created: 1500 – 1502
Movement: High Renaissance
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Location: Dept of Paintings, Room 371

Perhaps a bit cruel and ironic to place Andrea Mantegna’s Triumph of the Virtues right after Perugino, but here we are nonetheless.

Like Perugino, Mantegna was in the twilight of his career at the time of completion in 1502. He would live just another four years after he completed the piece.

Mantegna’s depiction of Minerva Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue (as the painting is also known) is filled with symbolism and action.

This painting and its companion piece, Parnassus, are meant to be placed opposite each other, as demonstrated by the fact that the light comes from the left in Parnassus and the right in Triumph of the Virtues.

On the left of the painting, we have the Roman goddess of wisdom, Minerva, spear in hand, as she rushes towards and drives away the various malformed monstrous Vices to re-establish the rule of Virtue (who we see imprisoned in the olive tree on the far left).

If you look at the far right of the painting, you can see the three Vices, Avarice, Ingratitude, and Ignorance, seemingly escaping via the swamp.

I’m a lover of the weird and creepy, and this painting has plenty of both: clouds with faces, owl-headed cherubs, and an anthropomorphic monkey are just some of the strange subjects in this painting.

10 – The Virgin of the Rocks

Artist: Leonardo da Vinci
Created: 1483 – 1486
Movement: Renaissance
Medium: Oil on Wood
Location: Denon Wing, Gallery 5

Breaking into our top 10 is Leonardo da Vinci’s Virgin on the Rocks (or Madonna of the Rocks as it’s also known).

Despite starting his career in Florence, in the early 1480s, da Vinci moved to Milan in search of new opportunities. He was commissioned to paint The Virgin of the Rocks shortly after arriving.

It was commissioned in 1483 to adorn a chapel in the San Francesco Grande church. This particular painting was intended to be the centerpiece of a triptych.

While commissioned in 1483, it would take another 25 years and two versions to be completed to the Confraternity’s satisfaction.

During this span, a dispute led Leonardo to sell his first version of the painting (image above). He would later start work on a second version of the painting, which can be found in The National Gallery in London.

Differences Between The Paintings

While the Louvre painting was done entirely by da Vinci, the second version was executed by da Vinci and two of his assistants: brothers Evangelista and Ambrogio de Predis.

A few other key differences:

• The Louvre version is almost 3 inches taller
• The London version features brighter colors
• The London version features halos, but the Louvre version does not
• John the Baptist is identifiable in the London version but less so in the Louvre version
• The plants and rocks are significantly different between the two pieces, with the Louvre version being closer to reality and the London version being the “idealized” world

09 – Crossing the Granicus

Artist: Charles Le Brun
Created: 1665
Movement: High Renaissance
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Location: Dept. of Paintings, Louis XIV Collection

Charles Le Brun was King Louis XIV’s preferred painter. The King of France commissioned four paintings to rival those found in the Vatican Museum, such as Raphael’s Battle of Constantine Against Maxentius.

Nicolas Poussin influenced Le Brun (see The Rape of The Sabine Women above) and became a dominant figure in the 17th-century. Louis XIV declared him “the greatest French artist of all time.”

Le Brun’s most successful works are a group of paintings called The Stories of Alexander the Great, which consists of:

• Crossing the Granicus (above)
• The Triumph of Alexander (1665)
• The Battle of Arbela (1669)
• Alexander and Porus (1673)

Each painting depicts a great battle of Alexander the Great, to who Louis XIV likened himself.

The Battle of Granicus was Alexander’s first victorious engagement during the invasion of the Persian Empire. It was monumental as it established the Macedonians on enemy soil, allowed Alexander to replenish his supplies, and encouraged some Greek states to rebel against the Persians.

While it was a clear victory, it almost cost Alexander his life as he was surrounded and forced to disarm. It wasn’t until after his companions rescued him that Alexander was able to defeat the Persian and Greek mercenary army.

08 – St. Michael Vanquishing Satan

Artist: Raphael
Created: 1518
Movement: High Renaissance
Medium: Oil on Wood Transferred to Canvas
Location: Grande Galeriè Room 710, 12, & 16

While always playing runner-up to his contemporary, Michelangelo, Raphael was a true master of the High Renaissance.

St. Michael Vanquishing Satan is a large-scale and more mature version of Raphael’s St. Michael, which he painted around 12 years earlier in 1518.

Both paintings are very similar and feature the archangel Michael standing atop Satan’s back while holding a weapon (a sword in the earlier version and a spear in the image above).

The earlier version, commissioned by Guidobaldo da Montefeltro who was the then Duke of Urbino, shows the artist in his earlier stages and does not feature the same realism that Raphael would create in his later years.

Pope Leo X commissioned Raphael to produce the portrait shown above.

When viewing the painting, pay attention to the motion being created and how your eye follows the lines from the spear’s tip toward the serpent’s head. The twisted pose of both Michael and Satan skillfully appropriates a specific technique that Michaelangelo made famous.

Raphael’s career and life were cut short when he died at 37 years old from an infectious disease. At his request, the artist was buried in Rome’s Pantheon.

Nearby Raphael Works:

• Portrait of Doña Isabel de Requesens y Enriquez de Cardona-Angelesola
• Portrait of Baldassare Castiglione
• “La Belle Jardinière” – The Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist

07 – David with the Head of Goliath

Artist: Guido Reni
Created: 1606
Movement: Romanticism
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Location: Grande Galerie

Guido Reni was a follower of 16th-century Italian Baroque master Caravaggio, and you only have to look at David with the Head of Goliath to see the similarities.

First, Reni’s depiction of the Biblical tale of David and Goliath mirrors one of Caravaggio’s most famous works, David with the Head of Goliath.

Second, Reni used strong contrasts of light in a dark theatrical style that Carravagio made famous. Reni was also drawn to historical scenes linked to bloody episodes like his predecessor.

Simply comparing Reni to Carravagio is selling this Bolognese painter short. Most historians acknowledge that Reni is responsible for creating the ideal, “classic” beauty of the 17th-century.

David is portrayed as a beautiful, clear-skinned young man with soft, delicate features. He is wearing a colorful garb, with a stunning red hat with a long gold feather attached to it.

In contrast, we have the giant head of Goliath, who has deep age lines and a long bristled beard.

Interestingly, Reni chose to feature David as having an elegant detachment from slaying the giant. The young man has melted into meditation.

06 – The Barque of Dante

Artist: Eugène Delacroix
Created: 1822
Movement: Romanticism
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Location: Denon Wing, Room 700

The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri (1265 – 1321), is considered one of history’s most influential pieces of literature. It was indeed the first great book since the fall of the Roman Empire 700 years earlier.

The Divine Comedy is an epic poem divided into three parts detailing Hell (Inferno), Purgatory (Purgatorio), and Heaven (Paradiso). Delacroix’s painting depicts a scene from Inferno in which Dante endures his crossing of the River Styx (a river from Greek mythology that acts as the entrance of the Underworld).

Dante’s version of the River Styx is the fifth circle of Hell, where the wrathful and sullen are punished by being drowned in the muddy waters for all eternity.

Long before John Milton released Paradise Lost, Dante was among the first to describe Hell in vivid detail. His writing would serve as the backdrop for why so many Christians are fearful of Hell in the first place.

In The Barque of Dante, Delacroix selected one of the most memorable scenes from the poem. This would serve as his first significant painting and helped establish him as one of the preeminent figures of the Romanticism movement.

It is an ambitious painting in a few major aspects, primarily that it broke free of the French Neo-Classical tradition Delacroix was working in.

This passionate allegory features Dante in his red cap alongside the Roman pagan poet Virgil, who gave him a guided tour of Hell. Neither comfort nor peace exists for either man as they find themselves in the middle of a storm, a looming furnace in the background, and rageful souls under their boat.

I love this painting because it shows various subjects’ psychological states and evokes genuine fear in the viewer. The lower third of the painting is claustrophobic and highlights the difficult journey Dante and Virgil find themselves on.

When creating this list, I knew instantly that The Barque of Dante would be included in the Louvre’s best paintings, but I wasn’t sure where. Alas, here it sits at number 6.

05 – The Wedding Feast at Cana

Artist: Paolo Veronese
Created: 1563
Movement: Renaissance
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Location: Dept of Paintings

Paolo Veronese’s The Wedding Feast at Cana is a breath of fresh air. In a sea of muted tones, this painting depicts the Bible scene where Jesus turned water into red wine at a feast in the city of Cana (John 2:1-11).

Veronese took obvious liberties and artistic freedom to create a scene much different than one depicted in the Bible.

The art of the High Renaissance emphasized human figures of ideal proportions, balanced composition, and beauty. The Venetians pushed this further by exaggerating these ideas and adding color, asymmetry, and unnaturally elegant scenes.

As typical of Venetian artists during the Renaissance, Veronese uses a multitude of colors to keep your eye focused on the painting.

At over 22 feet tall and 32 feet wide, this is the largest painting we’ve covered on the list and is the most expansive painting in the Lourve Museum.

Veronese was commissioned by the Black Monks of the Order of Saint Benedict to create a painting large enough to fill the back wall of the beautiful San Giorgio Monastery in Venice.

Assisted by his brother, Benedetto Caliari, Veronese delivered the completed painting in September 1563. It remained in the San Giorgio Monastery until 1797, when Napoleon’s French Revolutionary Army plundered the painting and brought it back to Paris.

The setting took inspiration from Raphael’s School of Athens and the seating arrangement from da Vinci’s Last Supper. Where they differ is in sheer scale.

The Wedding Feast at Cana contains 130 human figures and includes many prominent historical figures:

• Francis I of France
• Mary I of England
• Holy Roman Emperor Charles V
• Poet Pietro Aretino
• Fellow Venetian school artists Jacopo Bassano, Tintoretto, and Titian.

Veronese depicts himself in his outstanding work as a musician in a white tunic (bottom center row).

04 – Death of the Virgin

Artist: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
Created: 1602 – 1606
Movement: Renaissance
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Location: Denon Wing, Room 710

Caravaggio is very divisive amongst crowds. People either love him or loath his work. I’m one of the former, as you can probably tell from his placement on this list.

Death of the Virgin was commissioned for the Santa Maria della Scala in Rome, but the painting caused a stir due to its subject matter, and the parish rejected it.

Caravaggio has a history of using beggars and prostitutes to model for him, and the fathers of Santa Maria della Scalla rejected it based on a breach of etiquette.

His painting of the Virgin Mary as an ordinary woman, most likely modeled after a prostitute, was enough for them to rid themselves of Caravaggio.

The fathers didn’t even ask him to repaint it; they rejected him completely and asked one of his students, Carlo Saraceni, to paint something new.

Some of Caravaggio’s contemporaries viewed the painting differently, with Peter Paul Rubens calling it his best work.

Its raw emotion was entirely unlike what others were painting at the time. Notice Mary’s colorless swollen bare feet, the lolling head, the hanging arm, and somber expressions of the Apostles and Mary Magdalene – all of which capture the essence of a Caravaggio painting.

Caravaggio completely abandons the iconography traditionally used for religious figures in devotional paintings. Instead, he goes for sobering photographic naturalism.

The assembly and posturing of the figures all expertly draw your eye toward Mary’s lifeless body. Notice how the faces around Mary are hidden behind hands or shadows so as not to take away from the actual subject of the piece.

If you appreciate Death of the Virgin, you’ll like Caravaggio’s The Entombment of Christ, which hangs in the Vatican Museum.

03 – The Coronation of Napoleon

Artist: Jacques-Louis David
Created: 1602 – 1606
Movement: Neoclassical
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Location: Dept of Paintings, Daru Room 702

According to the NYTimes, Napoleon, in his conquest of Italy, pillaged nearly 600 paintings and sculptures to “‘link himself to these works of genius’ and justify their plunder by invoking ‘the aims of Enlightenment.'”

If you’ve made it this far in the list, you’re already familiar with some of these paintings. So when Jacques-Louis David became the first painter of Emperor Napoleon, it was a huge deal.

David’s first commission, The Coronation of Napoleon, is one of the most important and famous paintings in the Louvre Museum and throughout history.

The painting is an imposing size at approximately 30 ft x 22 ft. The sheer enormity means you can hone in on the individual expressions of each person.

If you’re not familiar with the event behind the painting, it was quite the moment of triumph for Napoleon. The event was held in Notre Dame Cathedral, and, at just 35-years-old, he was made Emperor by Pope Pius VII.

At the coronation, he became the first Frenchman in a thousand years to hold the title of Emperor.

David chose to focus on a few key scenes in the painting implicitly and explicitly.

While everyone else looks on in admiration or intrigue, the Pope’s dour demeanor was entirely intentional.

Napoleon took command of Rome in 1796 after defeating Papal soldiers. This led the conqueror to drag Pope Pius VI to France against his will, where he died in 1799. The next Pope, Pius VII (seen seated behind Napoleon), did not approve of the coronation or the soon-to-be Emperor.

The scene in the painting starts immediately after Napoleon arrogantly takes the crown from Pius VII and places it on himself. He then crowned his wife Josephine Empress with his own hands.

David’s painting became so famous that, in 1808, American entrepreneurs commissioned him to paint a full-size replica immediately after the release of the original. He did so entirely from memory (this replica is currently in the Palace of Versailles).

Most Important Figures

• Napoleon is standing with coronation robes similar to Roman emperors, the Roman victors crown on his head, and the crown of Charlemagne in his hands
• Josephine Bonaparte kneeling in front of Napoleon with the Empress’ crown on her head
• Pope Pius VII, the only man sitting, looking down with a sad face
• Maria Letizia Ramolino, mother of Napoleon, did not attend the coronation due to a fight between the family, but David gave her a place of honor in the stands

Nearby Works by David:

• The Intervention of the Sabine Women – A sequel to Poussin’s The Rape of the Sabine Women (number 15 on our list)
• Leonidas at Thermopylae

02 – The Raft of Medusa

Artist: Théodore Géricault
Created: 1819
Movement: French Romanticism
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Location: Dept of Paintings, Mollien Room 700

The Raft of Medusa is not for the faint of heart, nor is the story behind the magnificent painting.

Completed when Théodore Géricault was just 27-years-old, the painting portrays the real-life story of the French naval ship Méduse, which went aground off the coastline of modern-day Mauritania in 1816.

The wreck was horrid and left at least 147 men abandoned on a hastily made raft. At their retrieval 13 days later, only 15 men survived but were malnourished and extremely dehydrated. In the following days, it was learned the surviving men practiced cannibalism to stave off hunger.

When released, the painting was a radical work of art that astonished everyone by detailing a gruesome incident. This was a considerable departure from the French Romantic scene at the time which was still focused on antique and noble subjects.

Géricault, a relative unknown at the time, produced this uncommissioned work after undertaking extensive research, including interviewing two survivors and constructing a detailed scale model of the raft.

To reproduce the gruesome events, Géricault visited hospitals and morgues so he could learn, first-hand, the color and texture of flesh on the dying and the dead.

When it was first shown in the 1819 Paris Salon (an art exhibition), The Raft of Medusa and its painter were catapulted into the international spotlight. Both attracting passionate praise and scathing condemnation.

The Louvre acquired the painting in 1824, shortly after Géricault’s death at 32.

01 – Liberty Leading the People

Artist: Eugène Delacroix
Created: 1831
Movement: French Romanticism
Medium: Oil on Canvas
Location: Dept of Paintings, Mollien Room 700

If choosing the top 20 paintings at the Louvre was hard, selecting which would be first was even more difficult.

Each of the top three was in rotation while I was planning this article, but chose Liberty Leading the People for what it symbolizes.

By the time Liberty Leading the People was finished, Eugène Delacroix was already amongst the greatest painters of his era.

The Barque of Dante (number 6 on our list) would have kept his name in history, but this painting solidified Delacroix as the greatest painter of French Romanticism.

Liberty Leading the People represents the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled King Charles X and was a pivotal time in French history.

The bare-breasted, barefoot woman of the people wears a Phrygian cap (prevalent during the first French Revolution between 1786 and 1799). She is holding the tricolor flag of the French Revolution in one hand and a bayonetted musket in the other.

While it was the flag of the revolution at the time, it would go on to replace the blue flag with gold fleur-de-lis and is France’s national flag to this day.

Liberty in this painting looks familiar because she is also represented in the Statue of Liberty in the New Jersey / New York Upper Bay outside of Manhattan.

Liberty is also a famous icon of ancient Greek origin, and her appearance goes back to the Winged Victory of Samothrace statue from 190 BC (also housed in the Louvre – Room 703, Denon wing, Level 1).

Liberty is surrounded by a mix of people from French society (starting clockwise):

• A child brandishing a pair of guns
• At her feet is a day laborer from the countryside (notice his color pattern)
• A middle-class man in a black jacket and top hat
• A man in white is a factory worker holding a saber

This motley crew of revolutionaries bound together to topple soldiers and guardsmen (as shown dead to the right of Liberty’s feet).

The painting served as a political poster for the revolution. It worked. People sympathized with the freedom fighters in the painting and condemned King Charles X.

Delacroix finished the painting in just two months and sold it to the government for 3,000 French francs the following year. Upon the sale, Delacroix was awarded the Legion of Honour, the highest French order for merits by military and civilians.

To this day, the emotion of this story holds up. The passion emanating from Liberty is almost palpable. Therefore, we consider it the most extraordinary painting in the Louvre.

Well, that’s it! That is our top 20 paintings in the Louvre. What do you think of our list? Did we forget your favorite? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.