The Louvre Abu Dhabi has revealed almost 300 art loans from major French institutions ahead of its opening year.
The works, which will be shown alongside the museum’s permanent collection, include pieces by Henri Matisse, Claude Monet and Leonardo da Vinci, whose Portrait of an Unknown Woman (circa 1495), also known as La Belle Ferronnière, is being loaned from the Musée du Louvre.
Woman Portrait, also called La Belle Ferronnière - Leonardo da Vinci
Edouard Manet’s The Fife Player (1866) and Claude Monet’s The Saint-Lazare Station (1877) will arrive courtesy of Musée d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie; a rare ivory salt cellar from the Benin Kingdom is arriving from from Musée du quai Branly and Henri Matisse’s Still Life with Magnolia (1941) will come from Centre Pompidou.
“These outstanding loans from our French partners represent the collaboration and exchange, symbolic of Louvre Abu Dhabi and its progress to date,” said HE Sheikh Sultan bin Tahnoon Al Nahyan, chairman of Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi).
“This will be the first time many of these works will travel to Abu Dhabi or even the Middle East, and are a rare opportunity to see important art from French museums in dialogue with the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s collection. Ultimately, we hope to offer visitors a unique experience from a new perspective that underlines the universal spirit of the entire project.”
The total selection of art works is being overseen by TCA Abu Dhabi, Agence France-Muséums (AFM) and all of the collaborating French museums.
Other participating French institutions include Musée du Louvre; Musée d’Orsay and de l’Orangerie; Centre Pompidou; Musée du quai Branly; Musée national des arts asiatiques Guimet; Château de Versailles; Musée Rodin; Bibliothèque nationale de France; Musée de Cluny - musée national du Moyen Âge; Cité de la Céramique Sèvres; Musée des Arts décoratifs; Musée d’archéologie nationale de St Germain en Laye and Château de Fontainebleau.
Self-portrait - Vincent Van Gogh
The number of works loaned by French institutions is due decrease over the course of the next decade as Louvre Abu Dhabi continues to develop its own collection.
The works will be on show from three months to two years, depending largely on ‘the narrative, the conservation and the preservation requirements of each piece’, according to a statement from the museum.
The loans are being arranged following a 2007 intergovernmental agreement between Abu Dhabi and France for the latter to provide artworks and objects of historical, cultural and sociological significance, ranging from prehistory to the contemporary
The construction of the museum is progressing, with the 180 metre diameter dome in position and almost complete. Louvre Abu Dhabi will be spread out over 64,000 square metres, comprising pavilions, plazas, alleyways and canals – evoking the image of a city floating on the sea.
