Exposition "La Marine et les peintres. Quatre siècles d'art et de pouvoir" au musée national de la Marine

As part of the Navy's 400th anniversary in 2026, the Musée national de la Marine invites visitors to take a fresh look at the painters from the 17th to the 20th century who witnessed the evolution of the maritime world and the conquest of the seas. This subject, little known to the general public and rarely, if ever, explored, is treated chronologically in eight sections and nearly 150 paintings, from the rise of the Navy under Louis XIII to the modern visions of the last century.

From the 17th century onwards, the assertion of sovereign power also manifested itself through the arts. While the specificity of marine painting as a genre, linked to landscape, instilled a new perception of the sea, ships, and maritime environments, painters were mobilised throughout the ages to magnify images of the Navy and the marine world: Le Lorrain, Vernet, Gudin, Morel-Fatio, Manet, Ziem, Signac, Marquet, Méheut, and Marin-Marie. In addition to the diversity of genres, from the picturesque to historical drama, the exhibition explores the relationship between art and power, through the way in which the military marine world and naval history have been represented. The public is invited to understand the sometimes complex links between the Navy and artists, the evolution of their roles, the singularity of their careers, and the variety of their statuses: painters for the King's seas, painters of the King's Navy, then painters listed in 1830 on the list of Navy officers (also known as "on the Navy Directory"), before the creation of a status for painters of the Department of the Navy in 1920, a prefiguration of the corps of Painters now commonly called official Navy painters (POM), not forgetting those who worked around military and artistic institutions.

46th edition of the Salon de la Marine

The 46th Salon de la Marine will be held from 13 May to 2 August 2026, following on from the exhibition La Marine et les peintres. Quatre siècles d'art et de pouvoir. Co-organised by the Marine nationale, the Association des Peintres Officiels de la Marine and the Musée national de la Marine, the Salon is part of the celebrations for the Navy's 400th anniversary. Under the theme "400 years of art and combat", this anniversary edition contrasts four centuries of naval engagement with contemporary artistic creation. The Salon thus affirms the continuity of a tradition of artist-witnesses, attentive to the reality of missions.