L’Oréal and the Louvre Tell the History of Beauty Through Art
PARIS — Beauty has been essential to humanity for time eternal, and a newly planned route through the Louvre museum, created with L’Oréal, crystalizes that essence in art.
“The whole idea behind this partnership was a shared passion for what is beautiful, and a shared desire to tell the story of beauty, which has [existed] since humankind exists,” explained Nicolas Hieronimus, L’Oréal chief executive officer. “It’s a revelator of society, of who we are as human beings.”
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“[Beauty] is never anything static or immutable, and continues reinventing itself over time,” said Laurence des Cars, president-director of the Louvre, during her speech at the cocktail party Tuesday evening here to celebrate the tie-in.
One-hundred-and-eight works, of which 44 are major oeuvres, were chosen as stops along the path of “De Toutes Beautés!” (or “Of All Beauties!”), which opens to the public on Wednesday. It’s a walk through time and space, spanning 10,000 years of history as well as cultures from Greece to Iraq and Italy.
“It’s a fantastic way for us to illustrate the essentiality of beauty — the importance for society — and potentially to bring also more kids to such a great museum,” said Hieronimus. “I’m extremely proud of this union between two of the most renowned French patrimony establishments: The Louvre, which is the biggest museum in the world, and L’Oréal, the number-one beauty company in the world.”
“Beauty has been essential to humanity pretty much from Homo erectus all the way to the metaverse,” agreed Blanca Juti, chief corporate affairs and engagement officer at L’Oréal, during an earlier sit-down interview at company headquarters in the Paris suburb of Clichy. “Because we actually even care how we look virtually.
“Beauty changes with time, but it also changes the time,” she continued. “We know that beauty is important, especially when times are hard. So when you’ve been sick, for instance, to return back to society, to feel good about yourself, makeup is very important.”
Beauty gestures — like bathing or applying fragrance — are part of people’s everyday lives.
“We know that beauty is both individual self-expression as well as taking care of yourself, which gives confidence,” said Juti. “It also marks who you are or what you want to be. But it’s social, as well, because it’s a sense of belonging.”
Punks in the ’80s, for instance, often wore kohl around their eyes. “There’s cultures and countercultures,” said Juti.
During the coronavirus pandemic, a great debate erupted over what’s essential in life. Juti, an anthropologist by training, had just arrived at the group. She, together with Hieronimus, decided to launch a study focused on what is beauty. That involved scientists, anthropologists, historians, stylists and doctors — among a wide swath of other metiers — plus internal and external research.
“There is this misperception that beauty is a light subject, that it is superficial,” said Juti.
A lunch was attended by her, Hieronimus, des Cars, who had then just started her position, and Delphine Urbach, L’Oréal’s director of art, culture and heritage.
“We were thinking: What would be a different partnership?” said Juti.
“It was really the time to anchor the sense of purpose in different dimensions,” said Urbach, adding the objective was to let people know they can have and express their own beauty. “It’s an essential need for humanity. We wanted to develop that type of idea through art.”
The notion of the beauty journey, which L’Oréal sponsors, was birthed at that meeting of minds. The group and Louvre’s values and mission resemble each other, like the quests for tolerance and celebrating diversity.
“We really have a connection,” said Urbach. “So we decided to build something together. We wanted to express that beauty and art are linked.”
The aim was “to create a map of beauty through the ages,” she explained. The project, according to Urbach, “is really philanthropy.”
She and a team from the Louvre dove deep into the museum’s collection to identify works that, when put together, are meant to express all facets of beauty. They deliberately did not choose oeuvres such as the “Mona Lisa,” which most people already know.
Instead, they explored three dimensions: First, cosmetics, with objects such as combs, a kohl pot and mirrors “to express how beauty was in everybody’s daily life in the world,” said Urbach.
The second axis is the canon of beauty.
“When you are in Egypt, it’s not the same at all as in Greece, Rome and the Renaissance,” she said. “The canon is not one truth. It’s evolving constantly, and there is some mix and match. There is no ‘ideal beauty.’”
In this section one can find, for instance, a sculpture of Hermes from the Greek period and a painting by Rubens.
“The third axis was more complicated to find, because we want to express that beauty is a mirror of society,” said Urbach. “When you want to represent yourself in a certain way, it says something about your time.”
A pivotal artwork in this category is the “Presumed Portrait of Madeline,” a painting of a Black woman by Marie-Guilhelmine Benoist that was exhibited at the Salon of 1800 and created an uproar. At the time, most Black people were represented as slaves in art, and Black skin was considered difficult to paint.
“It’s more than just a painting — it’s a piece of history,” said Urbach. “It’s really a turning point in the history of humanity.”
There were many back-and-forths between her and the Louvre team about what to include, since there was so much possibility.
“We had to make some choices to be sure that we represent all the periods, departments, types of ethnicities [and] subjects,” she said.
Among the highlights of the exhibit — giving credence to the fact that art, like beauty, has existed in every culture and time — is the wooden-and-ivory “Spoon in the Shape of a Swimmer Holding a Duck.” That dates from about 1390 to 1352 B.C. and is possibly a votive object used to scoop cosmetics.
“King Sargon II and a High Dignitary,” hailing from Khorsabad, Iraq, from 721 to 705 B.C., is of gypsum alabaster and shows two men with lavish coifs and elaborate jewelry.
The “Sleeping Hermaphrodite” sculpture is Roman, from possibly the second century, after a Greek original created around 150 B.C. The subject linked to gender fluidity is topical today.
Also from around the second century is “Richelieu Hermes,” a Roman copy of a Greek statue representing the messenger of the gods, with his ideal beauty.
“Head of a Prince” comes from Iran in about the year 1200, and has Buddhist influences. Hidden in its turban is a small, flat glass bottle of fragrance.
Encapsulating a beauty trend of the 15th century is “Portrait of a Young Princess of the House of Este,” by Pisanello, dating from about 1435 to 1440. The portrait-sitter had some of her hair shaven off, in order to be as pure as possible to distance herself from animals.
Not too long after another strong, diverging beauty trend emerged. From around 1483 to 1485, Botticelli painted a representation of allegorical beauty in “Venus, the Roman Goddess of Love, and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman” for a fresco in a villa near Florence. The women depicted in it had very well-tended, long golden-colored hair.
There is “Woman With a Mirror,” by Titian, from about 1515. In the painting, the woman looks at her hair. She has a fragrance bottle and a mirror behind and in front of her, creating a sort of old-time selfie.
“Voltaire Nude,” a marble sculpture by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, dates from 1776. Created in France, it shows the writer as an older man.
The entire “Of All Beauties!” journey would take approximately two days to complete should one stop at each artwork. Museum visitors can be guided through it with a specific application, which is accessible via QR codes and usable outside the museum.
The exhibit will run through at least March 2027.
“It really was a very collaborative work of finding what would be surprising and interesting,” said Juti. “We’ve combined our know-hows,” she added, referring to L’Oréal and the Louvre.
That coupling further birthed an upcoming web series, due out early next year.
“You can see how art speaks to today’s youth,” said Juti.
Findings from L’Oréal’s study about the essentiality of beauty were expressed in a book with that title, which is for company employees’ internal use.
“We want to create the beauty that moves the world,” she said of L’Oréal at large, citing its mission statement.
Other recent projects associated to the essentiality of beauty include a podcast, called “This Is Not a Beauty Podcast.” L’Oréal also updated a book, titled “100,000 Years of Beauty,” first out in 2010.
“It’s the same book, but the future has already happened,” said Juti. So that forward-looking section was rewritten.
The executive said people often underestimate beauty’s socio-economic contributions. In Europe, for instance, the fragrance and cosmetics industry generates 3 million jobs. Cosmetics comprise the second-largest trade balance in France, after aeronautics.
“But more than that, I think it’s essential for every individual,” said Juti, of beauty. “That’s where this starts.”
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