France

About

Some of the oldest images anywhere are in French caves: the horses and aurochs of Lascaux were painted about 17,000 years ago. Gothic cathedrals such as Chartres filled their walls with stained glass in the 12th and 13th centuries. Under Louis XIV the Royal Academy set rules for grand history painting, and French taste steered Europe from Rococo lightness to Jacques-Louis David's stern Neoclassicism.

The 19th century turned France into the stage of modern art. Théodore Géricault's The Raft of the Medusa (1818–19) and Eugène Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People (1830) brought passion to Romanticism, Gustave Courbet insisted on painting the real, and Édouard Manet's Olympia (1863) unsettled the public. Impressionism followed, then Auguste Rodin's expressive bronzes and the Fauves' wild colour, with Henri Matisse, Maurice de Vlaminck and Henri Manguin. Paris also led fashion, from Paul Poiret's corset-free gowns to Gabrielle Chanel's jersey suits.