The Louvre: The Many Lives of the World's Most Famous Museum

By James Gardner

Almost nine million people from all over the world flock to the Louvre in Paris every year to see its incomparable art collection. Yet few, if any, are aware of the remarkable history of that location and of the buildings themselves, and how they chronicle the history of Paris itself-a fascinating story that historian James Gardner elegantly tells for the first time.

Before the Louvre was a museum, it was a palace, and before that a fortress. But much earlier still, it was a place called le Louvre for reasons unknown. People had inhabited that spot for more than 6,000 years before King Philippe Auguste of France constructed a fortress there in 1191 to protect against English soldiers stationed in Normandy. Two centuries later, Charles V converted the fortress to one of his numerous royal palaces. After Louis XIV moved the royal residence to Versailles in 1682, the Louvre inherited the royal art collection, which then included the Mona Lisa, given to Francis by Leonardo da Vinci; just over a century later, during the French Revolution, the National Assembly established the Louvre as a museum to display the nation's treasures. Subsequent leaders of France, from Napoleon to Napoleon III to Francois Mitterand, put their stamp on the museum, expanding it into the extraordinary institution it has become.

With expert detail and keen admiration, James Gardner links the Louvre's past to its glorious present, and vibrantly portrays how it has been a witness to French history - through the Napoleonic era, the Commune, two World Wars, to this day - and home to a legendary collection whose diverse origins and back stories create a spectacular narrative that rivals the building's legendary stature.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Grove Press UK
• Release date: May 7, 2020
• ISBN: 9781611854763

Reviews for The Louvre

[pomo58 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Louvre: The Many Lives of the World's Most Famous Museum by James Gardner is an engrossing and, for me, an eye-opening account of the history of the space we now know as the Louvre.While I have been twice, I am unfortunately one of those who went strictly to see what is stored inside without any inkling of the rich history of the building itself, not to mention the site as a whole. Gardner does an impressive job of consolidating all of the history into a readable book. This is a history book, not a work of fiction, so it does indeed read as a history book. It is quite engaging and nothing like a textbook though it is detailed. But detailed is different from being textbook-like. If you are hoping for a light read about just the museum itself, you might want to look elsewhere. If you are curious about how what seems to have been little more than a crossroads at one time could become, via a garrison and a palace, the world's most famous museum, you will be delighted with this book.When I mentioned the writing style a moment ago, I don't mean to imply that it is a light and breezy read, Gardner covers a lot of information and so the writing is definitely geared toward offering information and putting it in context with what came before or will come later. Pretty much by definition that writing will have to have a certain formalism to it. Yet even with those demands, the writing is still straightforward and quite enjoyable.I recommend this for readers who enjoy history as told through a specific place. Because of the time covered, we get a fair amount of European history here, but only as it applies to the Louvre. I also think anyone who has visited the museum but didn't know the rich history of the location itself will find a lot to enjoy.Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.