The Louvre sets major Zurbarán retrospective for autumn 2026

The Louvre will open 'Zurbarán 1598-1664' in the Hall Napoléon from 7 October 2026 to 25 January 2027, mounting a major retrospective devoted to Francisco de Zurbarán, one of the most important Spanish painters of the 17th century. The museum says the exhibition is organised with the National Gallery in London and the Art Institute of Chicago, and is intended to offer a focused selection of high-quality works rather than an exhaustive monograph.

According to the Louvre, Zurbarán was long viewed primarily as a Caravaggesque painter shaped by monastic austerity, but by the 20th century he had also come to be recognised as a striking colourist with a highly personal style. The exhibition will be arranged in seven sections and will follow a chrono-thematic structure, allowing visitors to trace the breadth of his painted output while also bringing together works in ways that depart at points from strict chronology.

The Louvre says the presentation will give particular weight to the monumental paintings made for monastic commissions in Andalusia, which helped establish Zurbarán’s reputation. It will also include portraits and still lifes, along with a prominent place for the short production of his son, Juan de Zurbarán, who lived from 1620 to 1649. The exhibition will also close with a small group of paintings from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, used to evoke Zurbarán’s importance for French avant-gardes including Édouard Manet, Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris.

The curatorial team is led by Charlotte Chastel-Rousseau, chief curator in the Louvre’s Department of Paintings, working with Francesca Whitlum-Cooper and Dabiel Sobrino Ralston of the National Gallery, and Rebecca Long of the Art Institute of Chicago. The museum notes that the exhibition has the support of Deloitte as grand mécène, with the concours of the Cercle International du Louvre - American Friends of the Louvre.

The Louvre’s website places 'Zurbarán 1598-1664' in the same space and at the same time as 'Sculpter la couleur - Chefs-d’œuvre du Musée national de sculpture, Valladolid', another exhibition scheduled for 7 October 2026 to 25 January 2027 in the Hall Napoléon. That project, organised by the Louvre with the exceptional collaboration of the Museo Nacional de Escultura in Valladolid, is devoted to Spanish 17th-century sculpture, especially polychromed religious wood sculpture, and is designed to create visual exchanges through a jointly conceived scenography.

Together, the two exhibitions form a parallel Spanish-focused season at the Louvre, accompanied by public programming tied to the exhibitions, including concerts, lectures, films and performances listed on the museum’s site. For the Zurbarán show, the Louvre has already posted an opening concert by Ensemble Cantoria and director Jorge Losana on 7 October 2026, while a presentation of the exhibition by Charlotte Chastel-Rousseau is scheduled for 12 October 2026 at 12:30 and 19:00. Ticketing for the exhibition is marked as opening soon.