Museography and History of Art: Jeanron's experience at the Louvre in the 1848-1852 Republic

Abstract

Practices for the exhibition of the work of art in 18™^h century France until the period after the French Revolution motivated a series of questions and debates, proving that the question of the place of art in society had become a matter of interest. At a stage where the affirmation of the History of Art as an academic discipline, the opening of the Royal and bourgeois collections for the establishment of the museums and the purpose of exhibiting the work of art to the learning of Art History, historians, artists and architects discuss the most appropriate strategies for the exhibition of these works. Territory still in formation, the museum is the stage of experimentation of museography, where the interference of ideological criteria is not lacking. This article reflects on the development of the museography and language of the exhibition that took place at first in galleries collections of the north of Europe and in the Louvre Museum, highlighting the experience of Philippe-Auguste Jeanron, director of the institution in the revolutionary Second Republic. A republican artist and an activist, Jeanron put his ideals into practice, directing the museography to a didactic narrative and establishing the basis of the creation of the art museum as a place for the public that visits it.