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From May 13 to August 2, 2026, the Musée national de la Marine in Paris presents "The Navy and the Painters. Four Centuries of Art and Power." To mark the 400th anniversary of the French Navy, the exhibition explores, through nearly 150 works, the links between artistic creation, power, and the maritime imagination from the 17th to the 20th century.
As part of the 400th-anniversary celebrations of the French Navy, the Musée national de la Marine invites visitors to take a fresh look at the painters who, from the 17th to the 20th century, depicted the sea, ships, ports, and naval battles. Little explored from this angle until now, the history of marine painting is approached here chronologically, across eight sections, featuring nearly 150 major works. From the affirmation of royal power under Louis XIII to the aesthetic questioning of the 20th century, the exhibition highlights how art accompanied, glorified, questioned, or challenged French maritime power. Artists such as Le Lorrain, Vernet, Gudin, Morel-Fatio, Manet, Signac, Marquet, Méheut, and Marin-Marie bear witness to this evolution, balancing idealization, documentary rigor, and pictorial modernity.
Exhibition Path
The Rise of the French Navy in Service of Power In the 17th century, driven by Louis XIII and Richelieu, France asserted its maritime power. Painting became a political tool: allegories, naval scenes, and symbolic representations celebrated the birth of a permanent State Navy.
The Emergence of a Pictorial Genre Influenced by Northern and Italian schools, marine painting gradually established itself as a genre in its own right. Claude Gellée, known as Le Lorrain, infused the sea with a new poetic dimension, blending observation of reality with luminous idealization.
Academicism and Royal Grandeur Under Louis XIV, the modern Navy was accompanied by a structured academic discourse. Marine painters joined the Royal Academy and participated in building an official iconography glorifying the sovereign.
The Age of Enlightenment: Science and Modernity The 18th century saw the rise of scientific expeditions and the professionalization of the navy. Artists combined technical precision with poetic atmosphere, documenting infrastructure, battles, and naval innovations.
History, Nation, and Battles The Revolution and the Empire transformed naval painting. Balancing heroization and realism, artists exalted maritime combat. In 1830, the first painters were listed in the Annuaire de la Marine, a milestone leading to the creation of the Corps of Official Painters.
Commissions, Aesthetic Debates, and Modernity From Romanticism to English influence, the sea became sublime, dramatic, and sometimes critical. The Salon reflected this evolution: history painting, genre scenes, military realism, and formal experiments coexisted.
Industrialization and Artistic Mutations Steamships, quays, cranes, and metal bridges transformed the maritime landscape. From Neo-Impressionism to Fauvism, colors and industrial modernity renewed the naval imagination. In 1920, the creation of the title "Painter of the Department of the Navy" formalized official recognition, foreshadowing the Official Painters of the Navy (POM).
Plurality of Contemporary Visions In the 20th century, abstraction, figuration, photography, and hyperrealism coexisted. Maritime representation oscillated between imagination, collective memory, and technical precision, reflecting the mutations of the naval world.
Price: From 0 to 15 euros.
Source: paris.fr — photo: Musée national de la Marine/P.Dantec