Did you know? You can take art history courses at the Louvre in Paris.

In Paris, the École du Louvre offers the general public art history courses, open to non-students, in the heart of the Louvre Palace each year, from September to June. The museum also hosts free lectures on occasion. A perfect way to become an authority on art history!

Craving to finally understand why everyone keeps glancing at La Joconde... while it seems to be watching you back? The École du Louvre, housed in the very heart of the Louvre Palace in Paris (the Louvre Museum, in short...), opens its art history courses to non-degree learners, with no diploma requirements, offering studies focused on major eras, civilizations, and artistic disciplines from prehistory to the contemporary period, from September to June for its main annual programs. So you don’t need to re-enroll in a full university program to bring some clarity to the tangled threads of Renaissance, Mannerism, Baroque, and other terms you sometimes nod to when strolling through an exhibition.

At the Louvre, classes spill over into the galleries

Located directly in the palace of the Louvre, the École du Louvre offers several courses accessible to non-degree students. Among them is notably the Histoire générale de l’art, a three-year cycle the school calls the "backbone" of its teaching. Classes run 1 hour and 30 minutes and take place weekly. Depending on the year you choose, paintings, sculptures and objects span different eras and geographic areas: Moyen Âge, Renaissance, arts de l’Islam, civilisations précolombiennes, Temps modernes, art contemporain or arts d’Afrique et d’Océanie. In short, enough to read museum labels with a slightly less puzzled eye.

And since we’re at the Louvre, the setting is perfectly apt. In-person courses take place in an amphitheater, and some lectures can also be followed online or on replay. The card given to listeners who enroll in at least one in-person cycle grants, during its validity, free and unlimited access to the Louvre’s permanent collections and temporary exhibitions, but also to those of the Musée Eugène-Delacroix, the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie. That opens up hands-on, real-world practice grounds for study—without any surprise exit checks.

At the Louvre, paid courses alongside free lectures

A small but important nuance: courses for external auditors of the École du Louvre are not free—they are paid. For the 2026-2027 year, for instance, the second-year cycle in General History of Art is priced at 425 euros at the full rate and 255 euros at the reduced rate for the in-person format with replay. Other cycles have their own pricing schedules.

By contrast, the Louvre also offers a slate of free, open-to-all scientific talks, including the Midis de l’Archéologie and the Leçons d’artiste. From multi-month courses to occasional, free-entry sessions, curious visitors have several routes to go beyond simply touring the galleries — and, perhaps, to have something new to say when facing the Venus de Milo rather than the tired arm story.

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