There’s a distinctly patriotic taste to Paris’s tentpole reveals this fall. The Louvre is mounting what often is the most vital Jacques-Louis David exhibition in dwelling reminiscence, whereas the Petit Palais is doing his Napoleonic period up to date Jean-Baptiste Greuze, and Georges de la Tour is on the Musée Jacquemart-André. The primary two are each tied to anniversaries of some type — the bicentenary of David’s dying and the three hundredth anniversary of Greuze’s beginning. Is it so dangerous to simply do a extremely bloody good present on huge French artwork historical past stalwarts with out the flimsy excuse?
Main non-public areas are additionally setting out their stall. The Fondation Cartier is opening an architecturally highly effective new house to rival the Bourse de Commerce, house to the Pinault assortment, which has conversely determined to go huge (or small) with an expansive survey on Minimalism.
Maybe extra indicative of the present French zeitgeist is what’s taking place outdoors the large museum circuit, like the brand new 7 Rue Froissart truthful. Or perhaps it’s the images of American-born Tyler Mitchell, quickly on view on the Maison Européenne de la Photographie. If you happen to’d favor to sink again into the nostalgia of a bygone period nearer to house, you’ll be able to be taught extra about Orson Welles on the Cinémathèque in a show marking 40 years since his dying (one more anniversary …).
Jacques-Louis David
Musée du Louvre, 99 rue de Rivoli, 75001October 15–January 26
Jacques-Louis David, “Les Sabines” (1799) (© GrandPalaisRmn, Musée du Louvre/Mathieu Rabeau/Sylvie Chan-Liat)
It is just becoming that France’s most essential museum ought to mount a serious retrospective of its most essential 18th-century painter, marking two centuries since his passing in 1825. David lived and painted via six completely different political regimes and took part within the Revolution; his work is thus loaded with political heft and symbolism. The Louvre is drawing upon three a long time of artwork historic analysis following the final monographical survey held in 1989, and the exhibition will characteristic masterpieces like “Les Sabines” (1799) and “The Death of Marat” (1793).
Jean-Baptiste Greuze: Childhood within the Highlight
Petit Palais, Avenue Winston-Churchill, 75008Through January 25
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, “Une Enfant qui joue avec un chien (portrait de Louise-Gabrielle Greuze)” (1767) (© Non-public assortment, courtesy Petit Palais)
Although Greuze is best recognized for his iconic historical past portray, this exhibition highlights the artist’s prolific depiction of kids and childhood. The museum takes these works as beginning factors to discover key matters of the interval, from sociopolitical points like training and the query of breastfeeding versus the usage of moist nurses, to the everlasting and existential — dying, the popularity of the state of childhood, and emphatic experiences with relation to households and society (the giving of the dowry, Bible studying). Roughly 100 artworks from worldwide collections will discover these and different themes in opposition to the backdrop of the Enlightenment.
7 Rue Froissart
7 Rue Froissart, 7 rue Froissart, 75003October 19–25
Robert Zehnder, Vein Tree (2021) (picture courtesy Mrs.)
This new truthful is meant as an antidote to the rigidly structured course of behind conventional reveals, comparable to Artwork Basil Paris, which is able to happen concurrently. Brigitte Mulholland, who opened her eponymous gallery in Paris in 2024 after 20 years on the New York scene, is becoming a member of forces with Sara Maria Salamone, co-founder of Mrs. gallery in Queens, to foster a extra collaborative, trans-disciplinary method amongst individuals. Count on experimental shows and performances, together with a drag act satirizing the Met Gala, all through this refreshingly free occasion.
Georges de La Tour: From Shadow to Gentle
Musée Jacquemart-André, 158 Boulevard Haussmann, 75008Through January 25
Georges de La Tour, “Boy Blowing on a Firebrand” (1646) (© Tokyo Fuji Artwork Museum)
The primary French retrospective on Georges de la Tour since 1997 focuses on the enduring enchantment of chiaroscuro and its skill to imbue scenes with a drama of various taste, from the humane and humble within the depictions of unusual folks to the intimate depth of spiritual narratives and the moralizing intentions of style work. Though there is no such thing as a proof that de la Tour traveled to Italy, the affect of Caravaggio is nonetheless obvious; it will likely be fascinating to see how the present will method the somber stillness of de la Tour’s remedy.
Tyler Mitchell: Want This Was Actual
Maison Européenne de la Photographie, 5/7 rue de Fourcy, 75004October 15–January 25
Tyler Mitchell, “Untitled (Topanga II)” (2017) (© Tyler Mitchell, courtesy the artist and Gagosian)
Atlanta-born Tyler Mitchell made his title as the primary Black photographer to shoot the duvet of Vogue on the age of 23. As this main survey of his decade of labor signifies, his photographs are grounded within the trappings of on a regular basis life however seize the everlasting questions of id, self-awareness and — after all — magnificence. Including to the pan-historical scope is his skill to attract upon historic tropes and themes, like colonialism and its reverberations on what it means for the Black expertise in the present day, with a way of breaking free. His images lend a dreamlike really feel to his scenes set in nature, asking, rhetorically: “Was/is this real?”
Sargent: Dazzling Paris
Musée d’Orsay, Esplanade Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, 75007Through January 11
Sargent in his Paris studio, c. 1885 (picture by Adolphe Giraudon by way of Wikimedia Commons)
An American large of portray, John Singer Sargent stays comparatively lesser recognized in France, one thing this exhibition goals to rectify — not least by specializing in the artist’s Parisian coaching when he studied underneath Carolus-Duran in 1874. Although hardly ever depicting Parisian scenes, Sargent nonetheless benefited from the whirling melting pot of creative and up to date society there, demonstrated by the 90 work organized in collaboration with The Met, some by no means earlier than exhibited in France. His 1884 portrait of Virginie Gautreau, which fell afoul of the Paris salon, will likely be given particular focus because the catalyst for his digital cultural expulsion from the nation.
Gerhard Richter
Fondation Louis Vuitton, 8 avenue du Mahatma Gandhi, 75116October 17–March 2
Gerhard Richter, “Kerze [Candle]” (1982) (© Gerhard Richter 2025, courtesy Fondation Louis Vuitton)
Fondation Cartier’s New Dwelling
Fondation Cartier pour l’artwork contemporain, 2 Place du Palais-Royal, 75001October 24–ongoing
Inside the brand new Fondation Cartier (© Jean Nouvel / ADAGP, Paris, 2025; picture © Martin Argyroglo)
Basis Cartier’s new location in a Haussmannian constructing reverse the Louvre was designed by Jean Nouvel, who reworked a historic construction with giant bay home windows that lend an openness towards the skin and 5 “mobile platforms” inviting flexibility and experimentation in exhibition design. The muse’s intention to determine itself as a severe establishment on the Parisian artwork stage is mirrored in its inaugural exhibition, which is able to draw upon its whole assortment spanning 40 years. What it chooses to show from its greater than 100 collected artists will certainly be its manifesto.
Minimal
Bourse de Commerce, 2 rue de Viarmes, 75001Through January 19
Susumu Koshimizu, “From Surface to Surface – a tetrahedron” (1972/2012) (© Susumu Koshimizu; picture by Joshua White, courtesy the artist and BLUM)
In choosing not simply from its personal assortment but additionally loans, Pinault chooses to develop on the usually, ehm, minimal understanding of Minimalism as merely “less is more.” The gathering will draw upon various actions inside this umbrella time period, from the Mono-ha in Japan, which sought to convey objects collectively as an exploration of house and interdependency, to Neo-Concrete artwork of Brazil. An extra layer of curation by theme — Gentle, Steadiness, and Floor, for instance — suggests the better depth and which means provided by an usually misunderstood motion.
My Identify Is Orson Welles
Cinémathèque, 51 rue de Bercy, 75012 ParisThrough January 11
From Procès, 1962 (© 1963–1984 Cantharus Productions N.V.)
The Cinémathèque française is celebrating this large of cinema to mark the fortieth anniversary of his dying. Welles’s late-career, which included phoning-it-in actions comparable to an ill-advised Champagne industrial, has unfairly coloured our perceptions of this polymath whose crowning achievement, his position within the 1941 movie Citizen Kane, arrived on the age of 25. Although he made 12 movies all through his lifetime, the tons of of works on view on this presentation are a reminder of the scope of his inventive exercise, spanning radio, sculpture, and drawing. Movie buffs will possible enjoyment of but extra major proof surrounding his iconic movies.
