Artists’ faces
From Gustave Courbet to Annette Messager
Petit Palais
- from 18 March to 19 July, 2026
- Avenue Winston-Churchill, 75008 Paris
- petitpalais.paris.fr
The Petit Palais explores a new major theme within its collections: the artist’s portrait and self-portrait.
Bringing together 19th-century paintings, sculptures, graphic arts, photographs, and decorative arts, the exhibition offers a fresh perspective on well-known masterpieces as well as rarely displayed works.
It examines the functions of the artist’s portrait—whether as tribute, friendship, lineage, or critique—and highlights “studio portraits,” interior scenes that reveal spaces of creation and sociability.
It also reflects the history of the museum’s collections, enriched by the generous donations of artists and their families.
Gustave Courbet
Self-Portrait with Black Dog
Between 1842 and1844
Oil on canvas
Petit Palais, Musée des beaux-arts de la Ville de Paris / CCØ Paris Musées / Petit Palais
At the same time, a selection of around ten contemporary women artists working in Paris revisits the genre of portraiture.
In dialogue with the collections, their works, between tradition and modernity, address questions of identity, gender, and feminist issues.
General curator
- Annick Lemoine, Chief Heritage Curator, Director of the Petit Palais
Scientific curators
- Stéphanie Cantarutti, Chief Heritage Curator, Head of Modern Paintings (1800–1890), Petit Palais
- Anne-Charlotte Cathelineau, Chief Heritage Curator, Head of the Sculpture Collection, Petit Palais
- Sixtine de Saint-Léger, Head of Decorative Arts before 1800 and Contemporary Art, Petit Palais
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