Last Of The Louvre For 2026

Just a few more pix, hopefully not previously posted here before...

After a couple rooms of Corots, we decided we need to learn and see
more...next time

Finally, northern lights! Francois Biard, Magdalena Bay (near
Spitzbergen), 1840

David, Antoine and Angelique Mongez, 1812; note that Madame Mongez
is smiling, possibly because her husband is finance minister, and maybe
because word has not yet come back from Russia about Napoleon's
misadventure there...

Also because after this woman, Elizabeth-Louise Vigee
Le Brun (self-portrait with her daughter), portraits smiled;
and even David caught on...

Vigee LeBrun's portrait of Joseph Vernet, a late 18th century
landscape painter of note and great interest to me; looking pleasant,
not smiling, however

Speaking of portraits, this is one of our 2 or 3 favorites, Van Eyck's
Virgin of Chancellor Rollin; subject of previous bloposts here;
something I cannot resist re-posting; 1435 (!)

Clouet's famous portrait of Francois Premier, 1527; who
was famous for many good reasons, not least of which was
bringing Mr. Smoky's Special Lady Friend to the Louvre

Holbein's Anne of Cleves; designated survivor, Vicki observes;
recently restored

The Louvre now has a room or two of works the Germans
"acquired" 1940-45. mostly from Jewish families later
murdered, but whose rightful owners have never yet been
identified

One instance of which, Jacques-Augustin Pajou,
The Two Duval Mademoiselles, 1828

Finally, pretty much out of any order I can understand in the
Italian section, three Luini frescoes, a Magi, an Adoration,
and a Blessing, all 1520s

Luini was a student and assistant to Leonardo

Luini's oil paintings were occasionally misidentified as
Leonardo's in bygone centuries; I have conspiracy theories

Finally finally, as long as we're on this particular corridor, which is the
main approach to Mr. Smoky's Special Lady Friend, we note how painful
it is to see so many busloads of tourists walking past items like the large
Botticelli fresco above, not so much as glancing at all the Giottos,
Cimabuies, Fra Angelicas, Ucellos, et al.; we can't wait for the renovation
that will move the world's most visited (and over-rated) work of art to its
own special place, with its own special additional charge; some of the
proceeds should go to a shrine for Francois Premier...oh, and perhaps this
is the place to plug my newest article in Artifices, "The Best Rooms for
Napping in the Louvre"