MELISSA BLOCK, HOST:
Last year, the Louvre Museum in Paris had a record nine million visitors. About 10 percent of them were American, yet the museum has only four American paintings in its collection. Well, now, curators at the Louvre are raising the profile of art from across the pond.
NPR's Eleanor Beardsley reports from Paris about a new exhibition of American art.
GUILLAUME FAROULT: French, of course, and Italian, Dutch, Flemish, Spanish, British, German...
ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE: That's curator Guillaume Faroult running down the list of nationalities that make up the Louvre's stunning 4,000 painting collection. To be fair, France actually owns some 2,000 American paintings, but those Whistlers, Homers and Cassatts are exhibited in more modern museums, such as the Musee d'Orsay. The Louvre's collections don't go beyond the year 1848, so the museum is trying to put the spotlight on early American art with an exhibit called "New Frontier: American Art Enters the Louvre."
The collection explores American landscape painting, which curator Faroult says all began with Thomas Cole in the early 19th century.
FAROULT: Thomas Cole was the first to say, well, we have the scenery, American scenery, which is completely different and we have to be proud of it, to be aware of it and proud of it. And we have to paint it, so that's what he did.
BEARDSLEY: Cole's paintings show Indians, the blood red leaves of North American autumns and dramatic scenery. Faroult says Europeans were stunned when his landscapes were first exhibited in London and Rome in the 19th century.
FAROULT: The colors were quite different. And also, the scale was gigantic. It was showing mountains, cliffs, lakes that were looking like seas. They looked gigantic and the European critics said, well, it's not real. It's unbelievable.
BEARDSLEY: This small, five-painting exhibit will travel to Atlanta and Arkansas later this year. It's sponsored by the Louvre and three U.S. art institutions. Three other American exhibits will follow in the next four years focusing on themes such as scenes from daily life and portraits at the time of the American Revolution. In addition, there will be talks and conferences to help boost the French public's appreciation for early American art.
Faroult says public support is important to the Louvre's efforts to acquire paintings in a highly competitive and expensive international art market. Visitors trickle in to the American landscape room from the Goyas and El Greccos next door in the Spanish hall.
Middle school teacher, Danielle Le Bourse, says she came to the Louvre especially to see the American paintings, although she says she's a little disappointed by the size of the exhibit.
DANIELLE LE BOURSE: (Through translator) I know American literature better. We really don't know American art, aside from Andy Warhol. But these paintings are nice and the colors are flamboyant.
BEARDSLEY: Curator Faroult says he has a surprise. He can't give any details yet because it's not a done deal, but he says the Louvre may be about to acquire another American painting, making it the fifth in its permanent collection.
Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:
You're listening to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News.