Explore a century of artistic change in the 19th-Century French Gallery, where tradition meets innovation. During the early 1800s, artists followed the strict standards of the Paris Salon and the École des Beaux-Arts, creating polished works inspired by classical ideals. As the century progressed, however, painters began to break away from these conventions, embracing emotion, realism, and new ways of seeing the world.

The gallery traces this remarkable evolution, from the dramatic Romanticism of Eugène Delacroix and the refined classicism of Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres to the groundbreaking ideas that paved the way for Impressionism. Along the way, artists experimented with bold color, expressive brushwork, and scenes from everyday life, forever changing the course of art history.

Highlights include works by renowned artists such as William-Adolphe Bouguereau, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet, Théodore Géricault, Jean-Léon Gérôme, Adolphe Jourdan, and Jean-François Millet. Together, these paintings tell the story of a period when artists challenged convention, responded to a rapidly changing world, and redefined what art could be.