10 November 2026 — 7 February 2027

Gustave Le Gray: Painter and Photographer

A painter by training and by vocation, Gustave Le Gray (1820–1884) was the very model of the learned artist in the early years of photography in France. He played a pivotal role among 19th-century photographers, as much for his achievements and the artistic ambitions he held for the new medium as for his influence as a technician – the inventor of major improvements – a theorist and a teacher who founded one of the first photography schools. Le Gray has been represented in the Musée d’Orsay’s collections since its first acquisition of photographs in 1979, and the museum now holds one of the most remarkable groups of his work. Nearly forty years after the first major exhibition devoted to Le Gray in France, held at the Musée d’Orsay with the Art Institute of Chicago in 1988, and more than twenty years after the landmark retrospective at the Bibliothèque nationale de France in 2002, this presentation offers a chance to rediscover the artist and his many-sided talent. Several recent acquisitions – major works whose existence was unknown until they surfaced on the market – are placed back in the context of their creation and shown to the public for the first time. The exhibition carries the “Bicentennial of Photography 2026–2027” label awarded by the French Ministry of Culture and is part of its official programme. Curated by Thomas Galifot, Chief Curator of Photography, Musée d’Orsay.

Musée d'Orsay