Splendeurs du baroque - De Greco à Velázquez

From 26 March to 2 August 2026, the Musée Jacquemart-André is celebrating Spanish Baroque art with the exhibition Splendors of the Baroque, organized in collaboration with the Hispanic Society of America in New York. For the first time in France, some forty masterpieces by artists such as Diego Velázquez, El Greco and Francisco de Zurbarán are on public display, offering an exceptional insight into one of the most fertile periods in the history of European art.

Between the 16th and 17th centuries, Spain experienced a period of prosperity and extraordinary cultural influence, driven by the Catholic Counter-Reformation. In an empire that stretched from Europe to the Americas, painting became a major vehicle of political and religious expression, giving rise to a powerful aesthetic in which spiritual subjects predominate, while portraiture enjoyed remarkable development.

The exhibition establishes a dialogue between several major figures of Spanish painting. The works of El Greco, marked by visionary spirituality and a singular style, sit alongside the restrained compositions of Francisco de Zurbarán, a master of contemplative religious scenes. With Diego Velázquez, portraiture attains a new dimension: his figures, striking in their realism, reveal a profound attention to the psychology of his sitters, as shown by his Portrait of a Young Girl.

Through these artists and their contemporaries, the display highlights the diversity of a Baroque style nourished by Italian and Flemish influences, and also enriched by exchanges with the Americas.

Founded in 1904 by the American scholar and patron Archer Milton Huntington, the Hispanic Society of America is one of the leading institutions devoted to the study and dissemination of Hispanic and Lusophone cultures. Based in New York, it now houses an exceptional collection comprising thousands of works—paintings, sculptures, manuscripts, decorative arts and archaeological objects—spanning several centuries of history.

While the institution is currently undertaking a major program to renovate its historic buildings, a selection of its masterpieces has been entrusted to the Musée Jacquemart-André. This collaboration makes it possible to present in France a rare group of paintings that illustrate the full richness of the Spanish Baroque.

Through this outstanding presentation, the exhibition reveals the expressive power of the Spanish Baroque and invites a rediscovery of a vital chapter in European art history.

With the support of