This 17th-century Spanish painter is finally on display at the Louvre.

The Louvre Museum is devoting a major retrospective to Francisco de Zurbarán, a leading figure in 17th-century Spanish painting. So we’re pulling out the calendar to note this first-ever exhibition, which will be staged in the Napoléon Hall from October 7, 2026 to January 25, 2027.

The Louvre Museum is hosting a long-awaited retrospective devoted to Francisco de Zurbarán (1598-1664), one of the foremost names of Spanish Baroque. Displayed in the Napoleon Hall, in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, the Zurbarán exhibition will run from October 7, 2026 to January 25, 2027, born from an unprecedented collaboration between the Louvre, the National Gallery in London and the Art Institute of Chicago. The last international retrospective of such magnitude dates back to 1987-1988, between the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Grand Palais in Paris. Close to forty years since Paris last welcomed his works.

Who was Francisco de Zurbarán, the great painter of the Spanish Golden Age?

Born in 1598 in Fuente de Cantos, in Extremadura, Zurbarán trained in Seville from 1611 to 1617, amid a particularly intense artistic and religious milieu. He stands alongside Diego Velázquez and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo among the leading Spanish painters of the 17th century. For a long time he was catalogued as a Caravaggist limited to monastic painting, but his work was gradually reevaluated during the 20th century. What emerges is a colorist of rare subtlety, whose personal style blends simplified volumes with striking naturalism.

What to see at the Zurbarán exhibition at the Louvre?

The exhibition brings together 65 high-quality paintings, most of them by the master himself (51 or so works, depending on the attribution), with a selection of canvases by his son Juan de Zurbarán (1620–1649). The display unfolds in seven chrono-thematic sections, mapping the long arc of his career while allowing for occasional thematic groupings. It gives pride of place to monumental works from monastic commissions in Andalusia, but also highlights portraits and still lifes.

In the epilogue, a selection of late-19th- and early-20th-century paintings reveals Zurbarán’s imprint on the French avant-garde, with works that evoke Édouard Manet, Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris.

Why does this exhibition matter for understanding European painting?

What stands out in Zurbarán's painting is his ability to turn silence into image. The fabrics hang with unsettling precision, the faces carry an almost physical presence, and the light sculpts each composition with a striking economy of means. The exhibition is curated by Charlotte Chastel-Rousseau, chief curator in the Louvre’s Department of Paintings, in collaboration with Francesca Whitlum-Cooper, Daniel Sobrino Ralston and Rebecca Long.

Also accessible with your ticket:

Sculpting Color: Spanish Baroque Sculpture Lands at the Louvre
The Louvre presents a selection of 23 Spanish 17th‑century sculptures loaned by Valladolid’s Museo Nacional de Escultura. The exhibition "Sculpting Color" runs in the Hall Napoléon from October 7, 2026 to January 25, 2027. [Read more]

The exhibition is housed at the Louvre Museum, the Louvre Pyramid, Rue de Rivoli in the 1st arrondissement, open daily except Tuesdays. Admission is €22 for EEA residents (€32 for non-EEA residents) and includes both permanent collections and temporary exhibitions. Free for under-18s and for EU residents under 26, as well as for everyone on the first Friday of the month after 6 p.m. (excluding July–August). Booking is recommended through the official ticket office.