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The Tuileries Garden’s dusty paths have been tread by luminaries of every century in their 400-year existence. From the delicate heels of Marie Antoinette to the black boots of Karl Lagerfeld, the garden has served as the stage for royal intrigues of the eighteenth century and Chanel fashion shows of the twenty first. It’s also an integral part of the French capital for the country’s less-famous citizens and tourists—10 million visitors annually—who spend their leisure time there.
The Tuileries’ storied past and noteworthy landscape architecture inspired the Museum’s major exhibition The Art of the Louvre’s Tuileries Garden. Organized by the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, the Portland Art Museum, Oregon and TMA, with the special collaboration of the Musée du Louvre, the exhibition introduced the “Central Park of Paris” to Northwest Ohioans.
“It’s arguably the most important space in the city,” said Richard Putney, co-curator of the exhibition and University of Toledo art history professor. Putney and Claude Fixler, the Museum’s exhibition designer, were tasked with transforming Canaday Gallery into an idyllic garden, complete with resplendent, large-scale sculpture never before seen outside Paris. The exhibition gained the approval of thousands of visitors—including the French ambassador to the United States, who made a stop at the Museum in April as part of a visit to the region.
“It was truly an honor to work with the curatorial staff of the Louvre,” Fixler said. “And it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our visitors.”