The Spanish gallery, also called Spanish museum was a gallery of Spanish painting created by French

King King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the tit ...

Louis Philippe I in 1838, shown in the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

, then dismantled in 1853.

Historical context

Until the

French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are considere ...

, Spanish art was seldom shown or known in France. it appeared at the

with the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

and the looting politics of Vivant Denon. However, stolen art pieces were given back by France after the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

(1814–1815). Louis Philippe decided in 1835 to found a Spanish painting gallery in the Louvre. He had several motivations: * He wanted to rebuild contacts with the Spanish branch of the

Bourbon dynasty The House of Bourbon (, also ; ) is a European dynasty of French origin, a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Navarre in the 16th century. By the 18th century, members of the Spanis ...

(the relationship with the Spanish branch had been degraded by the Napoleonic Wars), and therefore put himself in the context of the European Royal families to legitimize his new power, * He also wanted to use the Spanish paintings as a model to renovate French painting, away from the current

Neoclassicism Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was ...

of the times.

Creation of the Gallery

Beginning in 1810,

French occupation French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with France ...

and repression in Spain made it highly unstable. The secularization of religious orders facilitated the selling of their art pieces outside of the Spanish territory. In 1835, he founded an "artistic mission" directed by Baron Isidore Taylor, which was in charge of constituting quickly a vast collection of Spanish paintings. Taylor acquired a huge collection of hundreds of paintings from primitive paintings to the

Spanish Golden Age The Spanish Golden Age ( es, Siglo de Oro, links=no , "Golden Century") is a period of flourishing in arts and literature in Spain, coinciding with the political rise of the Spanish Empire under the Catholic Monarchs of Spain and the Spanish H ...

. Many of the paintings he acquired were unknown from the public because they came from religious collections. The Spanish Gallery opened to the public on 1838/01/07, in five rooms on the first floor of the

Cour Carrée The Cour Carrée (Square Court) is one of the main courtyards of the Louvre Palace in Paris. The wings surrounding it were built gradually, as the walls of the medieval Louvre were progressively demolished in favour of a Renaissance palace. Cons ...

's East (

Colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

) Wing. The opening was accompanied by a lot of Royal marketing and publicity. Louis Philippe stressed the point that the collection was acquired on his own founds. The collection counted for example 81 Zurbaran, 39 Murillo, 28 Ribera, 23

Cano CANO, a Canadian progressive rock band of the 1970s and 1980s, was the most successful popular musical group in Franco-Ontarian history. Origins CANO evolved out of the ''Coopérative des artistes du Nouvel-Ontario'' (''Artists' Cooperative of N ...

, and 19 Velázquez. Many paintings attracted the admiration of the public. However, the collection, which counted 450 paintings, was criticized for its inconsistency. Taylor sent "en masse" the paintings, without any preliminary selection, and nobody in the Louvre had the required expertise to operate this selection. Masters as Murillo and Zurbaran were shown alongside much smaller artists.

Dispersion and influence

El Greco - Le Christ en croix adoré par deux donateurs 02

After the death of Louis Philippe, the collection was dismantled in London, from 6 to 8 May 1853, during an auction in

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...

. Only one painting was forgotten in the reserves and remained in the Louvre (''The deploration of Christ'' by

Jaume Huguet Jaume Huguet (; 1412–1492) was a Catalan painter. Originally from Valls, he moved to Tarragona to stay with his uncle Pere Huguet, who was also a painter. When they moved to Barcelona he was exposed to modern trends of the time. Between 1440 ...

). One of the painting came back later to the Louvre in 1908: "Le Christ en croix adoré par deux donateurs" from

El Greco Domḗnikos Theotokópoulos ( el, Δομήνικος Θεοτοκόπουλος ; 1 October 1541 7 April 1614), most widely known as El Greco ("The Greek"), was a Greek painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. "El G ...

, bought from the Prades town for 25000 francs. Nowadays only these two paintings from the initial collection are shown in the Louvre. This collection was seen by many artists and intellectuals of the time and influenced them.

Édouard Manet Édouard Manet (, ; ; 23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Born ...

wrote to

Charles Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poetry, French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticis ...

, concerning Velazquez, in a letter from the 14 September 1865: "he is the greatest painter of all times.

References

Bibliography

* * ''Notice des tableaux de la Galerie Espagnole exposés dans les salles du Musée Royal au Louvre'', Imprimerie de Crapelet, Paris, 1838 ;
archive
* Collective, ''Manet – Velasquez : la Manière espagnole au XIXième'', Réunion des Musées Nationaux, 2002 {{ISBN, 2711844900 Louvre Spanish art