You’ve seen the photos. A sea of smartphones, hundreds of tourists jostling for space, and somewhere in the distance, a small, greenish portrait behind bulletproof glass. Most people treat the Louvre like a checklist. They sprint to the Mona Lisa, snap a blurry selfie, and bolt for the exit.
Honestly? You’re missing the best parts.
The Louvre is essentially a massive, chaotic fortress filled with 35,000 objects. If you only look for the "famous" stuff, you’ll end up exhausted and underwhelmed. But if you know the stories—the real, gritty, sometimes scandalous history—the 10 most famous paintings in the Louvre start to look a lot different.
1. The Mona Lisa (La Gioconda)
Let's just address the elephant in the room. Why is this painting so famous? It wasn’t even the most popular work in the museum until it was stolen in 1911. Before that, it was just another Renaissance portrait. When it went missing, the world went crazy. People literally queued up just to see the empty space on the wall where it used to hang.
Leonardo da Vinci started this in 1503 and likely kept working on it until he died in 1519. He never gave it to the guy who commissioned it (Francesco del Giocondo). He just carried it around with him.
The "mystery" of her smile is basically a trick of the light. Leonardo used a technique called sfumato, which means he blurred the edges of her mouth and eyes. When you look directly at her lips, she isn’t really smiling. But when your eyes wander to her cheeks or the background, your peripheral vision picks up those shadows, and suddenly, she’s grinning at you.
Pro Tip: As of 2026, the Louvre has moved the Mona Lisa to a dedicated room to manage the crowds. You now need a separate time slot for this specific gallery, so don’t just show up and expect to walk in.
2. The Wedding Feast at Cana
Directly opposite the Mona Lisa is a painting that is roughly the size of a city bus. Paolo Veronese’s The Wedding Feast at Cana is the largest painting in the Louvre. It’s over 700 square feet.
It depicts the biblical story of Jesus turning water into wine, but Veronese basically turned it into a 16th-century Venice rager. You’ve got about 130 guests, including musicians, servants, and even some royal cameos like King Francis I and Queen Mary I of England.
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The sheer audacity of this thing is wild. Napoleon’s troops actually cut the canvas in half just so they could roll it up and ship it to Paris as war booty. You can still see the seam running down the middle if you look closely.
3. Liberty Leading the People
You probably recognize this from the Coldplay album cover or a high school history textbook. Eugène Delacroix painted this in 1830 to celebrate the July Revolution.
Liberty isn't a real person. She’s an allegory—specifically Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic. She’s dirty, she’s half-dressed, and she’s stepping over corpses. At the time, critics hated it. They thought she looked too "common" or even "grimy."
Look at the figures following her. You’ve got a guy in a top hat (the bourgeoisie) next to a kid with pistols (the working class). It was a radical statement that revolution belongs to everyone, not just the elites.
4. The Coronation of Napoleon
Jacques-Louis David was basically Napoleon’s personal PR agent. This painting is massive—nearly 33 feet wide. It depicts the moment in 1804 when Napoleon was crowned Emperor at Notre Dame.
Here’s the thing: it’s mostly fake news.
In the painting, Napoleon’s mother is sitting front and center in a throne. In reality? She hated her son’s new title and stayed home in Rome. Napoleon told David to paint her in anyway. Also, Napoleon didn't want the Pope to crown him; he famously grabbed the crown and did it himself. David painted the "calm" version where Napoleon is crowning his wife, Josephine, to make it look a bit more dignified.
5. The Raft of the Medusa
This is the darkest thing you’ll see in the Louvre. Théodore Géricault painted this in 1818 based on a real-life maritime disaster. The French ship Medusa ran aground, and the officers took the lifeboats, leaving 147 people to drift on a makeshift raft.
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Only 15 survived. By the time they were rescued, they had resorted to cannibalism.
Géricault was obsessed with getting it right. He interviewed survivors, built a scale model of the raft, and—this is the gross part—spent months studying severed limbs and cadavers in his studio to capture the exact color of decaying flesh. It’s a masterpiece of Romanticism, focusing on raw, ugly human emotion rather than idealized beauty.
6. The Lacemaker
After all those massive, bloody canvases, Johannes Vermeer’s The Lacemaker feels tiny. It’s about the size of a piece of printer paper.
Vermeer was the master of light. Look at the way the yellow bodice glows or the tiny, blurred threads of white and red silk spilling out of the sewing cushion. It’s incredibly intimate. He uses a "shallow focus" effect—the girl is sharp, but the foreground is blurry. It’s exactly how a human eye (or a camera lens) focuses when looking at something very close up.
7. The Oath of the Horatii
Another Jacques-Louis David banger. This one is the ultimate example of Neoclassicism. It shows three brothers swearing to fight to the death for Rome.
The composition is incredibly rigid. You have three arches in the background, three groups of people, and the three swords at the center. It’s all about duty, sacrifice, and the state coming before family. It was painted just years before the French Revolution and became a sort of rallying cry for the rebels.
8. The Seated Scribe
Okay, technically this is a sculpture, but it’s so central to the "Louvre experience" that most guides group it with the paintings. It’s nearly 4,500 years old.
Unlike the idealized statues of Pharaohs with six-pack abs, the Scribe looks like a real guy. He has a bit of a belly, some wrinkles around his eyes, and a focused, intense expression. His eyes are made of rock crystal and copper, and they seem to follow you around the room. It’s one of the few pieces from Ancient Egypt that feels like you’re looking at a specific human being, not a god.
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9. The Winged Victory of Samothrace
Again, a statue, but hear me out. It’s placed at the top of the Daru staircase, and the impact is better than any painting.
It represents Nike, the Greek goddess of victory. She’s standing on the prow of a ship, her wings spread, and her clothes are blowing back as if she’s fighting a gale-force wind. Even without a head or arms, the movement is incredible. It was found in pieces on the island of Samothrace in 1863 and took years to reconstruct.
10. The Astronomer
Another Vermeer. This one was actually stolen by the Nazis during World War II. Hitler wanted it for his "Fuehrer Museum" in Linz. It was finally returned to the Rothschild family after the war and eventually ended up in the Louvre.
The painting shows a scientist reaching out to a celestial globe. It captures that 17th-century Dutch obsession with discovery, science, and the unknown. The light coming through the window is vintage Vermeer—soft, directional, and perfect.
How to actually see these without losing your mind
If you try to see all ten in one go, your feet will give out by hour two.
First, buy your tickets in advance. This isn't a suggestion; as of 2026, the Louvre rarely allows walk-ins. Second, enter through the Porte des Lions entrance if it’s open; it’s usually much less crowded than the Pyramid.
Don't follow the "Mona Lisa" signs immediately. Go the opposite way. Most people follow the crowd, meaning the galleries furthest from the entrance are empty for the first hour of the day.
If you want to avoid the worst of the 2026 price hikes, visit on the first Friday of the month after 6:00 PM when admission is often free for certain groups (though check the website, as these rules change).
Next Steps for Your Trip:
- Download the "Louvre +" App: It has updated 3D maps because the museum layout changed significantly after the 2025 renovations.
- Book the "Mona Lisa Annex" Slot: If you want to see the Da Vinci portrait in its new location, you need to reserve this specifically when you buy your general admission ticket.
- Plan for 3 Hours: Anything more than that and "museum fatigue" sets in. Pick five of these ten and spend time actually looking at them rather than rushing.
The Louvre isn't a race. It's a massive, beautiful mess of history. Take it slow.