Masterworks

The title 'The Raft of Medusa', together with the paintings 'Epic Scale' and 'Heroic Pathos,' automatically makes one think of a classical tragedy. Painted by Théodore Géricault at the age of 28 in Paris, this picture is not only one of the earliest Romantic demonstration pictures, but also one of the most important masterpieces of the 19th century...

This huge painting entitled 'The Marriage at Cana' was painted by the Renaissance painter Paolo Veronese. As his name suggests, Veronese was born in Verona in 1528. At about 23 years of age he moved to Venice and there, with Titian and Tintoretto, he became one of the great masters of the Venetian school...

Louis was the most talented of the Le Nain brothers. Although this painting of a 'Peasant Family' is attributed to either Antoine or Louis, but it is most likely to have been the work of Louis. This picture was painted only a few years before he died. Undoubtedly the work of a mature artist, here we have an intimate view of a simple peasant family in their home...

Napoleon's trophies of war, looted from the palaces and public buildings of Europe, gave the Louvre the status of a world museum. But this transformation was only temporary, for with Napoleon's downfall in 1815, the majority of these works were repatriated. In 1796 the French painter Hubert Robert painted this imaginary view of what he planned for the Great Gallery of the Louvre...