Bruno Liljefors. Wild Sweden

Less known than Carl Larsson and Anders Zorn, Bruno Liljefors is a key figure in the Scandinavian art scene of the late 19^th century. Through this very first presentation to the French public, the Petit Palais aims to reveal Liljefors' pictorial virtuosity and original contribution to the construction of the imagery of Swedish nature.

This unprecedented exhibition will present a set of 100 works (paintings, drawings and photographs) whose subjects are exclusively dedicated to Swedish nature and the animals that inhabit it.

Bruno Liljefors, L’atterrissage des oies sauvages ,1899, Huile sur toile, 69×173 cm. Prince Waldemarsudde, Stockholm. © Prince Waldemarsudde, Stockholm

Damien Deroubaix. On such a dark day

The Bibliothèque nationale de France presents Damien Deroubaix (born in 1972), a singular figure in the contemporary art scene.

The artist's multifaceted and polysemic work, which entered the BnF's collections early on, is brought into dialogue with some of the greatest masterpieces of printmaking, from Dürer to Gauguin.

More than seventy paintings, prints, engraved panels, and sculptures – both historical and very recent pieces, some created specifically for the exhibition – engage in dialogue with a selection of printmaking masterpieces from the BnF collections.

« War inside my head », gravure sur bois, éd. Jordan-Seydoux, 85 × 64 cm - 2017 - © Damien Deroubaix / © ADAGP, Paris, 2024. Photo BnF, Paris

Paris 1793-1794. A revolutionary year

Year II of the Republican calendar, corresponding to the period from September 22, 1793, to September 21, 1794, was a decisive year of the French Revolution.

The exhibition brings together more than 250 works of all kinds - paintings, sculptures, decorative art objects, historical and memorial objects, wallpapers, posters, furniture pieces... all interpreting extraordinary collective histories and individual trajectories.

Jacques Prévert, creating dreamscapes

On the occasion of surrealism's centenary and the 70^th anniversary of his settlement near the Moulin Rouge, the Musée de Montmartre celebrates this artist known as a poet and screenwriter, whose work extends far beyond.

Lyricist, playwright, committed humanist and surrealist, he also devoted himself to visual arts through illustrated screenplays, artistic collaborations and surrealist collages.

This exhibition highlights these more intimate and personal creations by Jacques Prévert, often overshadowed by his writings but equally revealing of his genius.

Jacques Prévert, Le désert de Retz, vers 1960, collage réalisé à partir d'une photo argentique d'Izis, collection Eugénie Bachelot Prévert, © Succession Jacques Prévert / Adagp, Paris, 2024

Louise of Orléans. First queen of the Belgians

Louise d’Orléans (1812-1850), fille aînée de Louis-Philippe, épousa en 1832 Léopold Ier, premier roi d’un royaume qui venait d’être créé, la Belgique. La première reine des Belges est pourtant souvent qualifiée de « reine oubliée ».

Louise of Orleans (1812-1850), eldest daughter of Louis-Philippe, married Leopold I in 1832, the first king of a newly created kingdom, Belgium. The first Queen of the Belgians is nevertheless often referred to as the "forgotten queen".

This exhibition brings this figure of Romantic Europe back into the spotlight.

Having received a solid artistic education, passionate about politics and a prolific letter writer, the Queen of the Belgians was at the heart of a wide network of knowledgeable patrons and wise monarchs, while demonstrating entirely personal preferences and holding a unique position in diplomatic relations.

Many previously unseen works from her collection are being presented for the first time, along with moving mementos, as well as official and intimate representations that are often unknown, although executed by the greatest artists of the time.

Marie d’Orléans, Portrait en pied de la princesse Louise vue de dos, 1832, aquarelle, H. 17 cm ; L. 9 cm, Chantilly, musée Condé, PD 505 © GrandPalaisRmn - Domaine de Chantilly - Michel Urtado

A new look at Watteau

An actor with no lines : Pierrot, known as Gilles

Pierrot, formerly known as Gilles, by Watteau is one of the most famous masterpieces in the Louvre's collection. This mysterious painting has raised numerous questions among historians for decades. Following its restoration, currently underway at the Center for Research and Restoration of Museums of France, it is the centerpiece of a unique focused exhibition.

The exhibition brings together numerous works by Watteau (paintings, drawings) as well as those of his contemporaries, painters, draftsmen, engravers (Gillot, Pater, Lancret, Oudry, Fragonard, etc.) and men of letters (Marivaux, Lesage, Regnard, Evaristo Gherardi), with an emphasis on the rich theatrical repertoire of the period.

The exhibition also explores the painting's "cast shadow," that is, its remarkable critical and artistic legacy.

Ribera. Darkness and Light

the Petit Palais presents the first French retrospective dedicated to Jusepe de Ribera, a great 17^th-century painter of Spanish origin who made his entire career in Italy.

The exhibition retraces his entire work thanks to the latest scientific discoveries that have expanded the corpus of his early years with a set of paintings previously attributed to the 'Master of the Judgment of Solomon'.

The exhibition covers the two main periods of his career, his stay in Rome and then in Naples, and aims to demonstrate the major and pioneering role of the artist in the interpretation of Caravaggio.

Jusepe de Ribera, Saint Jérôme et l’ange du Jugement dernier, 1626, Huile sur toile, 262×164 cm. Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte, Naples. © Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte.

François Chifflart. The Rebel

A major retrospective of 170 pieces paying tribute to François Chifflart (1825-1901), master of black and white.

His independent and rebellious spirit against academicism and the ruling power curtailed the promising career that awaited him after winning the Grand Prix de Rome in 1851.

This admirer of Hugo expressed his talent in the graphic arts: an exceptional etcher, he contributed to the revival of etching with his "improvisations on copper"; an inspired draftsman, he created illustrations for Toilers of the Sea in 1869, then executed the drawings for The Hunchback of Notre-Dame and The Legend of the Ages, which have since become iconic Hugo works. For Le Monde illustré, he also captured in the collective memory the Parisian fires of the Commune.

François Chifflart, La Conscience, Détail, 1877, Pierre noire ou fusain huilé sur papier © Maisons de Victor Hugo Paris-Guernesey / Paris Musées

Elles. Jean-Jacques Henner students

When the École des Beaux-Arts was forbidden to them, how did women train in art during the second half of the 19^th century?

The museum is devoting an exhibition dedicated to Jean-Jacques Henner's female students, who followed the painter's teachings.

It's an opportunity to give women artists their rightful place, to tackle subjects such as their apprenticeship, their professionalization, and to highlight their works and their links with Jean-Jacques Henner.

Through more than 80 paintings, drawings, letters and photographs, this exhibition highlights the work and lives of around ten women artists from the second half of the 19th century. Some had emblematic careers, yet all remain too little known to the general public.

Marie CAYRON-VASSELON, Carnet de dessins. Portraits d’élève de l’atelier : Mlle Durif, entre 1881 et 1882, graphite sur papier. Collection de la famille Carcenac-Cabrol, descendante de Marie Vasselon © Jean-François Peiré - DRAC OCCITANIE.

Pierre Alferi - Drawings, 2006-2021

This solo exhibition at the Beaux-Arts de Paris, where he taught since 2015, presents to the public for the first time a substantial collection of about fifty drawings, created between 2006 and 2021.

Alongside his work as a writer and poet, Pierre Alferi (1963-2023) drew intensively for years, a practice he only revealed in 2020 on his website Enseignes.

His drawings, on which he often wrote, explore the relationship between word and image, serving both as a ground for experimentation and personal expression.

A Fighting Exile: Artists and France 1939-1945

This exhibition takes visitors on a journey through art and history, revealing how artists and intellectuals in exile used their creativity to promote the values of freedom.

From London to Sydney, via New York, Brazzaville, Buenos Aires, Cuba and Algiers, visitors will discover the varied backgrounds and courageous commitments of a wide range of personalities. Among them are René Cassin, Germaine Krull, André Masson, Wifredo Lam, Maria-Helena Vieira da Silva, Henry Valensi, Fernand Léger, Jean Hélion, Anna Marly, Micheline Rosenberg, Georges Duthuit, Jean Gabin and many others.

The exhibition features numerous drawings, some of them previously unpublished, and highlights the persistence of freedom of action and creation, embodied by the spirit of the Enlightenment, in the territories that rallied.

Henry Valensi (1883-1960), Le Débarquement, 1944, Gouache et crayon sur papier. Paris, musée de l’Armée, inv. 2023.53.1

Watteau's worlds

The collections of the Duke of Aumale preserved at the Musée Condé, Château de Chantilly, include a set of ten works by Antoine Watteau (1684-1721).

Taken together, these six drawings and four paintings offer both a complementary and varied overview of the different facets of the artist's work.

By bringing together loans around these works to reconstruct the genesis of certain paintings, to create a dialogue between different treatments of the same subject by the artist, or to compare the approaches he adopted successively, the exhibition aims to immerse visitors in The Worlds of Watteau through five sections:

• Portraits
• After the Masters
• Views of the Contemporary World
• Theater Fashion and Costumes
• Fêtes Galantes

Antoine Watteau, Jeune femme assise à terre, vers 1715, sanguine, 20,3 x 19,3, Chantilly, musée Condé, copyright GrandPalaisRmn - Domaine de Chantilly-Thierry Ollivier

Ruhlmann, Decorator

History has established Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann as the true champion of the 1925 exhibition.

The Musée des Arts Décoratifs will open the centennial celebration of the 1925 event with a tribute to this exceptional decorator, through drawings, wallpapers and photographs from its collections.

Jacques-Émile Ruhlmann and Desfossé & Karth — Wallpaper Circa 1917 © Les Arts Décoratifs

Rococo & Co. From Nicolas Pineau to Cindy Sherman

On the occasion of the Dessin 2025 fair, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs is paying tribute to Nicolas Pineau, an ornamental sculptor and architect, one of the major figures of the artistic renewal at the beginning of the 18^th century.

By comparing drawings, most if which are on view for the first time with pieces of woodwork and objects from the Museum’s collection, this exhibition offers an unprecedented dive into the workshop of Rocaille art.

Cindy Sherman, Soupière et plateau Madame de Pompadour (c) Les Arts Décoratifs / photo de Christophe Dellière

Eugène Viala (1859-1913). The Ash of the Dream

Born in 1859, Eugène Viala was a multifaceted artist: etcher, poet, painter, and watercolorist.

The fantastic and visionary dimension of his work places Viala in the lineage of painter-engravers who, from Francisco de Goya to Rodolphe Bresdin and Odilon Redon, were practitioners of the suggestive power of ink blacks.

This exhibition highlights Eugène Viala through nearly 80 engravings and preparatory drawings.

Exhibition in collaboration with the Denys-Puech Museum of Rodez and the contribution of a private collector

La Tour de Peyrebrune, étude au lavis [entre 1888 et 1898], Plume et lavis à l’encre noire, Cat. 44, rubrique « Rapprochements », Collection particulière

The Experience of Nature in the Arts at the Court of Rudolf II in Prague

A great patron of the arts and sciences, Emperor Rudolf II (1552-1612) was one of the European sovereigns whose enthusiasm for the study of nature was the most passionate.

He summoned scholars and artists from all over Europe to his court, who worked in close proximity to one another within the castle grounds, turning Prague into a true laboratory, a place of experimentation, in an atmosphere conducive to intellectual and religious tolerance.

The first part of the exhibition presents this convergence of scientific and artistic perspectives on nature, particularly evident at the Prague court.

The second part of the exhibition shows how this visual curiosity, shared by scientists and artists alike, contributed to the renewal of artistic creation in Prague.

Amor. Allégorie du printemps Georg Hoefnagel c Musée du Louvre. Dist RMN-Grand-Palais Martine Beck-Coppola

Exhibition of winners and nominees of the Pierre David Weill Drawing Prize

The Prix de Dessin Pierre David-Weill - Académie des beaux-arts was created in 1971 by Pierre David-Weill, a member of the Académie des beaux-arts, to encourage the practice of this essential creative gesture among new generations of artists.

The prize supports artists under the age of forty who use drawing techniques, and thus contributes to the emergence of new talent in this discipline.

Maximilien Luce (1858-1941), the instinct of Landscape

This retrospective highlights the work of neo-impressionist painter Maximilien Luce, a key figure in anarchist circles, through the lens of landscape. Beyond the humanist spirit that drives Luce's work, landscape emerges as a central theme in his painting.

The exhibition traces the artist's travels, shedding light on the social and industrial transformations of his era.

Idyllic scenes of bathing coexist with the ominous silhouettes of factories. The city, factories, and nature become fertile grounds for experimentation. The unique way in which Luce captures light and color reveals the astonishing beauty of both urban and rural landscapes.

Maximilien Luce Paris vu de Montmartre, 1887 Huile sur toile Association des Amis du Petit Palais, Genève, Ph © Studio Monique Bernaz, Genève

Jewellery Designs. Secrets of the creation

The Petit Palais unveils for the first time its unique collection of jewelry drawings, spanning over a century of creation, from the second half of the 19th century to the mid-20th century.

The exhibition traces the creative process of high jewelry designers, from their sources of inspiration to their final creations, through studies, sketches, gouaches, and jewelry models.

The journey traverses periods and styles, highlighting the techniques of the greatest houses such as Lalique, Cartier, Rouvenat, and Boucheron.

Collier, Raymond Subes, 20e siècle, Crayon graphite, gouache, papier cartonné, 23,8x16 cm., Petit Palais, musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, © Paris Musées / Petit Palais, ADAGP, Paris, 2025

I hit you with a flower suger-coated art with a punch

This exhibition presents the work of artists whose pieces appear frivolous while being both attractive and intelligent.

Exuberant images with slightly provocative undertones flow nonchalantly from these artists' hands, addressing topics such as feminism, gender, (homo)sexuality, intimacy, eroticism, racism, and body acceptance with such refined subtlety that it's barely noticeable.

In partnership with the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam in the Netherlands