Spanish gallery


The Spanish gallery, also called Spanish museum was a gallery of Spanish painting created by French King Louis Philippe I in 1838, shown in the Louvre, then dismantled in 1853.

Historical context

Until the French Revolution, Spanish art was seldom shown or known in France. it appeared at the Louvre with the Napoleonic Wars and the looting politics of Vivant Denon. However, stolen art pieces were given back by France after the Congress of Vienna.
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, 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 of the times.

    Dispersion and influence

After the death of Louis Philippe, the collection was dismantled in London, from 6 to 8 May 1853, during an auction in Christie's. Only one painting was forgotten in the reserves and remained in the Louvre. One of the painting came back later to the Louvre in 1908: "Le Christ en croix adoré par deux donateurs" from El Greco, 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 wrote to Charles Baudelaire, concerning Velazquez, in a letter from the 14 September 1865: "he is the greatest painter of all times.