Explore the Rich Artistic Heritage of France

Overview of French Art Through the Ages

French art includes visual and plastic arts such as architecture, woodwork, textiles, and ceramics originating from France.
France has a large selection of prehistoric art dating back to 40,000 to 10,000 years ago, including cave paintings, portable art, and ornamental beads.
The region of Gaul came under the rule of the Roman Empire from the first century BC to the fifth century AD, and Southern France is known for its many intact Gallo-Roman monuments.
Merovingian art is the art and architecture of the Merovingian dynasty of the Franks, which lasted from the fifth century to the eighth century in present-day France and Germany.
Carolingian art is the approximate 120-year period from 750 to 900, during the reign of Charles Martel, Pippin the Younger, Charlemagne, and his immediate heirs.
Romanesque art refers to the art of Western Europe during a period of one hundred and fifty years, from approximately 1000 AD to the rise of the Gothic style, which arose in the middle of the twelfth century in France.
Most Romanesque sculpture was integrated into church architecture, not only for aesthetic, but also for structural purposes.
Gothic art and architecture were products of a Medieval art movement that lasted about three hundred years and began in France in the mid-twelfth century.
Gothic architecture was born in the middle of the twelfth century in Île-de-France, when Abbot Suger built the abbey at St. Denis, c. 1140, considered the first Gothic building, and soon afterward, the Chartres Cathedral, c. 1145.
French art can be said to have been a leader in the development of Romanesque art and Gothic art before the Renaissance led to Italy becoming the main source of stylistic developments.
France regained the leading role in the Arts from the 19th to the mid-20th century.
French art includes a variety of styles and often incorporates subtly modified elements from other cultures.French Art Through the Ages
French Gothic architecture was characterized by cathedrals such as the Chartres Cathedral, Bourges Cathedral, and Notre Dame in Paris, which were built over several successive periods, making it difficult to declare one building as belonging to a certain era of Gothic architecture.
Gothic sculpture evolved from the early stiff and elongated style into a spatial and naturalistic treatment in the late 12th and early 13th century, incorporating influences from ancient Greek and Roman sculptures.
Painting in a Gothic style did not appear until about 1200, with a transition from Romanesque to Gothic occurring first in England and France around 1200, in Germany around 1220, and in Italy around 1300.
The French invasion of Italy in the late 15th century brought the French into contact with the Northern and Italian Renaissance, inspiring changes in French art executed by Italian and Flemish artists.
The French Renaissance was characterized by the construction of the Châteaux of the Loire Valley, which took advantage of the richness of the rivers and lands of the Loire region and showed remarkable architectural skill.
The seventeenth century marked a golden age for French art in all fields, with late mannerist and early Baroque tendencies flourishing in the court of Marie de Medici and Louis XIII.
Through propaganda, wars, and great architectural works, Louis XIV launched a vast program designed for the glorification of France and his name, with the Palace of Versailles being transformed into a marvelous palace for fêtes and parties.
The Rococo style emerged in the decorative arts in France during the Régence period, with rocaille painting turning toward lighter subjects, like the "fêtes galantes," theater settings, pleasant mythological narratives, and the female nude.
The Louis XV style of decoration was lighter with pastel colors, wood panels, less gilding, and fewer brocades, and the Chantilly, Vincennes, and Sèvres manufactures produced some of the finest porcelain of the time.
The most prominent architects of the first half of the eighteenth century were Robert de Cotte and Ange-Jacques Gabriel, who designed public squares like the place de la Concorde in Paris and the place de la Bourse in Bordeaux in a style consciously inspired by that of the era of Louis XIV.
The latter half of the eighteenth century saw a turn to Neoclassicism in France, with Jacques-Louis David being the greatest representative of this style in painting.
Other important neoclassical painters of the period are Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Joseph-Marie Vien, and, in the portrait genre, Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun.
French art of this period included a Pre-romanticist aspect, with Hubert Robert's images of ruins and the change from the rational and geometrical French garden of André Le Nôtre to the English garden.A Brief History of French Art
Neoclassical architecture was developed by architects like Ledoux and Boullée, who emphasized simple and pure geometrical forms with symmetry and harmony.
The French Revolution and Napoleonic wars brought changes to the arts in France, with artists like David, Gros and Guérin exalting and mythologizing Emperor Napoleon I of France in their paintings.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was the main figure of neoclassicism, prioritizing drawing over color and influencing other artists like Eugène Delacroix, who opposed Ingres and was the most important romantic painter of the period.
Romanticism was characterized by idealized landscapes and realism, with Gustave Courbet and the Barbizon school developing from it and Symbolism emerging in the late 19th century.
Academic painting at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts was highly successful with the public and state, with painters like Jean-Léon Gérôme, William Bouguereau and Alexandre Cabanel painting historical scenes inspired by antiquity.
Édouard Manet's exploration of the forthright nude, rediscovery of Spanish painting, and radical brush strokes were the first steps toward Impressionism.
Impressionism rejected mixed colors and black in favor of capturing fragile transitive effects of light outdoors, with Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Edgar Degas being important impressionists.
Post-Impressionists like Vincent van Gogh, Georges Seurat, and Paul Cézanne experimented with color and content, while Les Nabis explored a decorative art with flat plains and a graphic approach.
Cubism dominated paintings of Europe and America for the next ten years, with artists like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque integrating all aspects and objects of day-to-day life into their works.
Dada became linked to the exploration of the unconscious mind through the use of automatic writing, chance operations, and altered states, and the surrealists quickly turned to painting and sculpture.
French art scene diverged roughly in two directions after WWII, with some continuing pre-war artistic experiments and others adopting new Abstract Expressionism and action painting from New York.
Many contemporary artists continue to be haunted by the horrors of WWII and the specter of the Holocaust, with Christian Boltanski's installations of the lost and the anonymous being particularly powerful.
The French art scene is home to many museums, including major museums like the Louvre and Musée d'Orsay, as well as textile and tapestry museums.