Artistes au Muséum

At the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution, 'Artistes au Muséum' brings together more than 300 works and objects to tell four centuries of back-and-forth between art and natural history. Painters, sculptors and draftsmen came to the Jardin des Plantes to study species they could hardly have observed elsewhere. Their images, in turn, helped naturalists describe, compare, and convey what they saw.

The vellums show the precision required by this collaboration. On these parchment sheets, painting makes visible details useful for identifying a species. Three previously unpublished works join this collection, including a depiction of a marine microorganism by Didier Geffard-Kuriyama. A few steps from these observational works, a hippopotamus sculpted by François Pompon shows what an artist can draw from the same interest in animal forms.

As the visit progresses, the works also change the way the institution is viewed. Plans and engravings that staged the Jardin du Roi, along with contemporary creations that question the disappearance of species, preserve the questions that each era has posed to the living world.

Practical information
• Closed on Tuesdays, December 25 and January 1.
• The ticket includes access to the permanent collections of the Grande Galerie de l'Évolution.