Following appearances at blockbuster exhibitions like Sleeping Beauties and The Cult of Beauty, beauty is now making itself a home in the Louvre Museum. Produced with the support of the Art, Culture & Heritage Department of L'Oréal Group, De Toutes Beautés! (In All Beauties!) explores the practices, representations, and role of beauty throughout 10,000 years of history and through 108 pieces of work, accompanied by audio and written mediation, which lets the objects “speak” their story to the visitor, accessible through a QR code-activated app. These include terracotta female figurines from 6000 BCE Mesopotamia, vermeil and badger hairbrushes from 1700s France, and the Italian marble sculpture of Hermès Richelieu from the year 125. Visitors will also be able to access these stories remotely, with an accompanying web series set to be released in early 2025.
"Together, we have designed a journey that highlights the vast diversity of beauty across eras and cultures. Through this playful and accessible approach to the works, the Louvre affirms its role more than ever as a school of the gaze, offering multiple pathways of discovery to share its heritage more broadly and generously," comments Laurence des Cars, President and Director of the Louvre Museum.
Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of L’Oréal Group, adds, "At the heart of our mission, in the idea of creating beauty that drives the world forward, lies the desire to democratize and tell the story of beauty, its plurality, and its role since the dawn of humanity. This is the compass that guides our patronage and leads us to seek new paths and new perspectives: in this regard, the Louvre naturally stands out, both for the richness and diversity of its collections and its ability to shed light on the most contemporary questions.”
Gautier Verbeke, Director of Mediation and Audience Development at the Louvre Museum states, “It happens that beauty, its practices, gestures, and canons, is the number one topic of conversation on social media today. It’s a very popular subject, and through it, we reach an audience that doesn’t naturally turn to the museum, a younger audience. Questioning beauty is to open oneself to the diversity and evolution of our societies and all cultures, to its history, which is not static but dynamic, with its constants, but especially with its impermanence.”
This dynamism marks De Toutes Beautés! as an exciting new chapter in bringing beauty not just to the Louvre Museum visitors, but those outside of its walls as well—a digitally enabled beauty education come to life.
