The Navy and the painters. Four centuries of art and power: an Artiou exhibition pick in Paris

Exhibition guide

From May 13 to August 2, 2026, the National Maritime Museum in Paris presents "The Navy and the painters. Four centuries of art and power". To mark the 400th anniversary of the Navy, the exhibition explores, through nearly 150 works, the links between artistic creation, power and maritime imagination from the 17th to the 20th century.

Visit details

• Dates: From Wednesday May 13, 2026 to Sunday August 2, 2026: Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
• Venue: Musée National de la Marine / Palais de Chaillot, 17, Place du Trocadéro, Paris
• Price: De 0 à 15 euros.
• Audience: All audiences
• Source: Event page

About the exhibition

Painting became a political tool: allegories, naval scenes and symbolic representations celebrated the birth of a permanent State Navy.

The emergence of a pictorial genreInfluenced by Nordic and Italian schools, marine painting gradually established itself as a genre in its own right. In 1830, the first painters were registered in the Marine Directory, a milestone towards the creation of the body of official painters.

Commissions, aesthetic debates and modernityFrom romanticism to English influence, the sea becomes sublime, dramatic, sometimes critical. Claude Gellée, known as Le Lorrain, breathes a new poetic dimension into the sea, between observation of reality and luminous idealization.

Academism and royal grandeurUnder Louis XIV, the modern Navy is accompanied by a structured academic discourse. The Salon reflects this evolution: history painting, genre scenes, military realism and formal experiments coexist.

Industrialization and artistic mutationsSteamboats, docks, cranes and metal bridges transform the maritime landscape. As part of the anniversary of 400 years of the Navy, the National Maritime Museum invites us to take a fresh look at the painters who, from the 17th to the 20th century, represented the sea, ships, ports and naval combats.

Still little explored from this angle, the history of marine painting is approached here chronologically, in eight sections, through nearly 150 major works. From neo-impressionism to fauvism, colors and industrial modernity renew the naval imagination. Marine painters joined the Royal Academy and participated in the construction of an official iconography to the glory of the sovereign.

The Age of Enlightenment: science and modernityThe 18th century saw the rise of scientific expeditions and the professionalization of the navy. From the assertion of royal power under Louis XIII to the aesthetic questions of the 20th century, the exhibition highlights the way in which art accompanied, magnified, questioned or challenged French maritime power.

Artists such as Le Lorrain, Vernet, Gudin, Morel-Fatio, Manet, Signac, Marquet, Méheut and Marin-Marie bear witness to this evolution, between idealization, documentary rigor and modernity In 1920, the creation of the title of "painter of the Department ofThe artists combine technical precision and poetic atmosphere, documenting infrastructure, battles and naval innovations.

History, nation and combatThe Revolution and the Empire transformed naval painting. pictorial.

Exhibition tourThe rise of the French Navy in the service of powerIn the 17th century, under the leadership of Louis XIII and Richelieu, France asserted its maritime power. Between heroism and realism, artists exalt maritime combat.