For the first time, our huge national
traditional museum devotes an exhibition to the American artists.
Organized jointly by Louvre and Terra Foundation for American Art of
Chicago, the exhibition gathers about thirty paintings only which
recall us
how much the Louvre influenced the Outre-Atlantique artists as of the
XIXth century. Giants such as Whistler or Hopper were extremely
impressed by the historical collections of the Louvre of which they
took inspiration at the time of their Parisian stays.
Many other American studied the history of painting on the spot,
watering themselves with the teaching of the old Masters of the end
of the XVIIth century until the years 1940: Benjamin West,
John Vanderlyn, George Catlin. The famous painting of Samuel Morse,
reproduced opposite, is particularly representative of that way. It
details the Square Living room as well as the large gallery in central
prospect. This immense painting is a historical scene of kind made in
1831 in which we recognize considerable masterpieces still hung
nowadays, of which Mona Lisa, at the time, boxed anonymously between
other tables suspended in front of our eyes. Morse, in love with France
which he visited more than twenty times, became member of the Academy
of the Art schools. 
