L’Oréal Groupe has opened an exhibition to share the story of beauty through art – from prehistory to the future.
Created by The Louvre Museum in Paris, France, in collaboration with L’Oréal Groupe’s Art, Culture & Heritage Department, it aims to explore the ever-changing ideas and concepts of the beauty of women and men in art.
The ‘De Toutes Beautés’ (translated as ‘Of All Beauties’) exhibition enables visitors to explore more than 10,000 years of art and history via 108 selected works which showcase the history of beauty.
It covers “beauty gestures, rituals and practices; the canons or idealised visions of beauty; and what questions about appearance and beauty reveal about societies and their transformations,” read a statement from L’Oréal Groupe.
The artworks are aided with a specially designed web application, accessible via a QR code, which contains written and audio materials to complement the museum’s existing signage.
For example, visitors can examine the beauty ideals of ancient Greece with the statue of Mercure Richelieu, or discover the 'Sleeping Hermaphrodite’ and explore the concept of gender.
“At the heart of our purpose, ‘to create the beauty that moves the world’, lies the desire to make beauty accessible to all, and tell the story of beauty’s diverse and enduring role since the dawn of time,” said Nicolas Hieronimus, CEO of L'Oréal Groupe.
‘De Toutes Beautés’ is situated at The Louvre in Paris, France (Photo by Nicolas Romieu / Courtesy of L'Oréal)
“This is what has driven us to explore new partnership opportunities and approaches.
“The Louvre was the obvious choice for this partnership, given the richness and diversity of its collections, and its ability to shed light on even the most contemporary of questions.”
De Toutes Beautés exhibition opened on 13 November and will run until 2027 as part of a three-year partnership between L'Oréal Groupe and The Louvre.
Laurence des Cars, President and Director of the Louvre Museum, added: “This unique journey, born from a fruitful dialogue with the L'Oréal teams, invites visitors to experience the Louvre's collections in a new light.
“Together, we designed a journey that highlights the vast diversity of beauty across eras and cultures.”
Lead image credit: HERMAPHRODITE ENDORMI, 100-150 AEC, photo by Nicolas Romieu/Courtesy of L'Oréal.