18th Century French Paintings in the Louvre Museum
Historically, the French 18th century was a century of change. This was also the case in art. Discover this captivating and brilliant period with a licensed guide-lecturer thanks to our 2-hour Louvre 18th-century French painting private tour.
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François Boucher is, with Antoine Watteau and Jean-Honoré Fragonard, a reference for 18th-century Rococo. The Louvre owns many Boucher paintings, such as pastoral landscapes with a watermill, a popular theme also displayed in other museums, as in the photo (Getty version, Los Angeles).
Louvre 18th century French Paintings private tour essentials
From €219 for 1 to 2 people + €30 for any extra person
- +/- 2-hour guided tour in English
- Genuine private tour = your party only (6 people max.)
- Postgraduate (MPhil) certified French national guide
- Flexible schedule
- Availability: not on Mondays, Tuesdays, or Wednesdays
- Not available January 1st, May 1st & December 25th
- Meeting point outside, not far from the Pyramid
Price does not include Louvre special tour tickets (€ 28 for people over 18, free under 18) and mandatory € 20 "right to speak" Louvre fees.
We will purchase both for you, as you can't buy them yourself.
Tickets you can purchase online yourself are not tour compatible. See our clarification about these abusively called skip-the-line tickets.
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Your Private Tour Guide in the Louvre
Certified French national guide
BA, Magna Cum Laude, Heritage Development & Preservation
from Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers (Grande Ecole established in 1794)
Postgraduate from Paris Dauphine-PSL University
What's in the Tour?
Enlightenment
Preromanticism
Drawing Versus Color
Rocaille & Rococo
Neoclassicism
Revolution
The Tour Masterpieces
"The Embarkation for Cythera" & "Pierrot" by Watteau; "Susanna at the Bath" by Jean-Baptiste Santerre; "The Ray" & "The Buffet" by Chardin; "Les attributs des arts" by Anne Vallayer-Coster; "Diana Leaving the Bath" & "Le Déjeuner" by François Boucher; "Ports of France" series by Joseph Vernet; "Peace Bringing Back Abundance" by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun; "The Bolt" & "Coresus Sacrificing Himself to Save Callirhoe" by Fragonard; "The Broken Pitcher" by Jean-Baptiste Greuze; "Psyche Receiving Cupid's First Kiss" and "Empress Marie-Louise" by François Gérard; "Portrait of a Young Girl" by Pierre-Narcisse Guérin; "Portrait of Madeleine" by Marie-Guillemine Benoist and some amazing portraits and history paintings by Jacques-Louis David.
Other carefully selected masterpieces to better explain the historical context and artistic evolution of the French Revolution century.
Why 18th-Century French Painting?
Because the French 18th century is called "le siècle des Lumières," literally the "century of lights" (in English, the Age of Enlightenment): a brilliant period.
Nevertheless, it was also a century of great change in France: a century that began with Louis XIV's absolutism, later saw France lose its dominant position to England, and finally led to the French Revolution, the fall of the monarchy, and the beginning of the Napoleonic period.
You will discover in this tour that the world of painting was not outdone in terms of changes. The French 18th century in painting is astonishing: a fireworks display of innovations under the strict control of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture.
The Royal Academy was abolished in August 1793 at the request of Jacques-Louis David, a deputy of the National Convention, seven months after the execution of Louis XVI and two months before that of Marie-Antoinette—the beginning of a new story.
Content of the Tour
- The painters of the end of the reign of Louis XIV (Jouvenet, de La Fosse, Coypel, Rigaud, Largillière, etc.) and the debate between Poussinists and Rubenists
- The invention of the "fête galante" (courtship party) to classify Watteau's works
- The Frivolity of the Regency and the Reign of Louis XV: the Rococo style with François Boucher, its most famous representative
- The influence of the Dutch Golden Age: still lifes, landscapes, genre painting
- Jean Siméon Chardin's still lifes
- The landscapes and seascapes of Joseph Vernet
- The moralizing genre painting of Greuze
- The impact of the new ideas of the Enlightenment on the arts
- Pioneering French women painters making history
- How the notion of portrait changed during the 18th century
- The multifaceted talents of Fragonard, the pupil of Boucher and Chardin
- The Neoclassical reaction
- The early stirrings of Romanticism with the ruin paintings (capricci) of Hubert Robert
Two Paintings for the Rococo Timeline
The Embarkation for Cythera by Jean-Antoine Watteau is considered the most significant milestone for the beginning of the Rococo period. Painted in 1717, only two years after the death of Louis XIV, the painting symbolizes the liberation of the French nobility from all the rules of the old king’s 72-year reign—a new era of endless pleasure-seeking, the Regency period. The masterpiece was Watteau’s reception piece to the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture; they invented a new category for the painting: “fêtes galantes” (courtship party).
The Bolt (French: Le Verrou), a gallant scene painted by Jean-Honoré Fragonard in 1777, is one of the last iconic works of the waning Rococo period. Fragonard remained faithful to the Rococo style late in his career despite having received strong signals to abandon it for Neoclassicism, the next dominant art style (a few years earlier, Fragonard’s Rococo paintings for the apartments of Mme du Barry, the last mistress of Louis XV, had been refused).
The Embarkation for Cythera ("L'embarquement pour Cythère") by Jean-Antoine Watteau. Photo of the second version of the work, which is in Berlin (Charlottenburg Palace). The first version, the most famous one, is in the Louvre.
The Bolt (French: Le Verrou), also known as The Lock by Fragonard.
An 18th Century Mona Lisa? The portrait of Madame de Sorquainville
Pierre Rosenberg (member of the Académie Française, President-Director of the Musée du Louvre from 1994 to 2001) wrote in his Dictionnaire amoureux du Louvre (2007) about the portrait of Madame de Sorquainville “Son sourire ? Celui d’une Joconde du XVIIIe siècle, d’un XVIIIe qui parlait et pensait français… “.
This portrait should be more famous than it is. It is clearly one of the jewels of the Louvre. Painted by Jean-Baptiste Perronneau, the rival of Quentin de La Tour in pastel, the canvas, despite being painted in oil, reflects many aspects of the 18th century's most sought-after portrait technique.
You have to be in situ to understand why it can be compared to the Mona Lisa: the quietness, the attitude, the eyes, the smile…
Madame de Sorquainville by Jean-Baptiste Perronneau.
A Few Glimpses of the Tour
Two Captivating Painters of the 18th Century
Jean-Baptiste Greuze was an exception; at the time of François Boucher's riot of nudity, he developed opposite, moralizing genre subjects influenced by seventeenth-century Dutch painting.
The most famous of these paintings, "L'Accordée de Village," is among others in the Louvre. Jean-Baptiste Greuze also painted charming pictures of young women with a subtle implicit meaning, as in "The Broken Pitcher."
Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun, like Greuze, had fantastic success, in her case in portrait painting. She was even the favorite painter of Queen Marie-Antoinette herself. Both painters' Academy reception pieces, "Peace Bringing Back Abundance" and "Septimius Severus and Caracalla," are shown in the Louvre galleries.
We will see how talent was not always enough to win the favor of the famous French art institution.
The Broken Pitcher by J.-B. Greuze.
Don't miss the opportunity to follow our Louvre 18th-century French painting tour
to discover the artistic side of the French Age of Enlightenment!
Prepare Your 18th-Century French Painting Guided Tour
Learn in advance how to distinguish Rococo from the earlier Baroque:
- Subject: from the sacred to the frivolous
- Portrait: from formal representation to character & personality
- Form: from symmetry to asymmetrical curves
The new style is also recognizable by the wide use of flower ornamentation and warm pastel colors (such as light blue or green).
More 18th-Century French Paintings with the Orléans Pastels Collection
One of the most famous Rococo and Enlightenment-era art forms is missing from the Louvre's 18th-century galleries: the pastel. Despite owning the largest pastel collection in France, the Louvre rarely shows them because of their fragility, which discourages their exhibition in the world's most visited museum.
Nevertheless, if you are an 18th-century fan, France's second-largest pastel collection is shown as part of the permanent collection of the quieter Orléans Museum of Fine Arts, only a little more than 100 km from Paris.
More 18th Century at the Louvre Museum: the Decorative Arts Galleries
The 18th-century art of the Louvre is not only about painting; in the north wing of the Cour Carrée, the museum also houses 35 galleries covering over 23,000 square feet that present the art of living at the French court from Louis XIV to the French Revolution. This exceptional 18th-century decorative art collection includes an incomparable array of masterpieces, from rugs and tapestries to royal furniture, jewelry, porcelain, and decorative paneling. The department was fully renovated in 2014, and the American Friends of the Louvre (AFL) raised $4 million to help renovate two key period rooms.
Other Louvre Paintings Tours You May Like
This 18th-century French painting tour is part of a cycle of four:
- Middle Ages and Renaissance French painting (coming soon)
- 17th-century French Painting
- 18th-century French Painting
- 19th-century French Painting (first half only)
But, if you are also interested in the second half of the 19th century, you must add our Musée d'Orsay Private Tour (covering the period from 1850 to 1914). Do not hesitate to contact us if you want to follow the entire cycle.
Things to Know Before Booking
Louvre Museum Tickets Fare
Price does not include Louvre special tour tickets (€ 28 for people over 18, free under 18) and mandatory € 20 "right to speak" Louvre fees.
We will purchase both for you, as you can't buy them yourself.
Louvre tours are not compatible with the tickets you can buy yourself online!
Restrictions
- Private tour means a tour for you & your party only, not that the museum is privatized.
- Tour duration & content are purely indicative; they may vary due to contingencies.
- In case of unexpectedly closed galleries, you accept that a tour content substitution will apply.
- Prices do not include transportation, food, drinks, or any other extra services.
Attention Points for the Louvre
- Check the Louvre's gallery closures schedule before planning your visit.
- Tours are on foot in the Louvre's huge galleries, so good health & comfortable shoes are mandatory.
- Photos are authorized but without flash. Selfie sticks are not allowed.
- WARNING: In case of free ticket, the corresponding proof is mandatory!
Meeting Point
Outside the museum, close to the Louvre Pyramid (detail during booking)
Access: Metro Line 1 or 7 station Palais-Royal - Musée du Louvre
Book your Louvre Private Tour
Just request the date, time, and number of people you want for your Louvre tour on our calendar, then follow the 3 steps below for an easy online process.
(1) Receive our OK email (48h free pre-booking)
(2) Pay your tour, via the payment link in our email
(3) Receive our
confirmation (email)
(4) We buy the louvre tickets for you. If we don't get them (very rare case) you are fully refund!
Nota bene: Step (1) free pre-booking is lost if no step (2) payment is received after 48 hours.
Louvre 18th-Century French Painting Private tour
2-hour tour- For 1 to 2 people + €30 for any extra person
- A group of up to 6 people, exclusively yours
- Ticket and right-to-speak costs will be added to the price.
- English language
The nude was also a recurrent theme in Boucher's Rococo. Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Self-portrait of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard. She was admitted to the Académie on the same day as her rival Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun. Credit: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Julia A. Berwind, 1953.
Unless otherwise noted, images are from The Yorck Project (2002), some with modifications. GFDL