2006 | 2008 | 2010
Engraving the World :
The Chalcography of the Louvre Museum

The Chalcography of the Louvre Museum brought together a collection of more than 13,500 plates engraved by the greatest French and foreign artists from the 16th century to the present day. It was founded on 12 May 1797, when the French Revolution handed over to the newly created Musée du Louvre the entirety of the copper plates engraved during the Ancien Regime and belonging to the Royal Collections, the collections of the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture, and various other holdings, royal, private or public.

The exhibition retraced 4 centuries of the history of the art of engraving in France, from the map of Paris known as “Turgot’s Map” in 20 plates from the prestigious King’s Cabinet collection, continuing to works by contemporary artists. The 2 Coronelli Globes, remounted for the first time, were displayed to visitors to the exhibition in Hong Kong.

A variant of the first exhibition of Quatre siècles d’estampes en France presented in Hangzhou in 2005, the exhibition, only grew in popularity over time as it pursued its exceptional journey through the Chinese world: 8 cities in China, in addition to Macao, which held another variant : From Versailles to the Forbidden City.