by Paris – Beauty has been essential to mankind for an eternal period, and a newly planned route through the Louvre museum, created with L’Oréal, crystallizes that essence in art.
One hundred and eight works, 44 of which are masterpieces, were chosen as stops along the path of “De Toutes Beautés!” (or “Of All Beauties!”), which opens to the public on November 13. It is a walk through time and space, spanning 10,000 years of history and cultures from Greece to Iraq and Italy.
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“Beauty has been essential to mankind for many years Homo erectus all the way to the metaverse,” said Blanca Juti, chief corporate affairs and engagement officer at L’Oréal, during a sit-down interview at the company’s headquarters in the Paris suburb of Clichy. “Because we almost deserve to care about what we look like.
“Beauty changes over time, but so does time,” she continued. “We know that beauty is important, especially when the weather is tough. So when you are sick, for example, to return to society, to feel good about yourself, makeup is very important.”
Beauty gestures – like bathing or using perfume – are part of people’s daily lives.
“We know that beauty is an individual self-expression as well as taking care of yourself, which gives confidence,” said Juti. “It also kills 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 example, often wore kohl around their eyes. “There are cultures and countercultures,” Juti said.
During the coronavirus pandemic, there has been a great debate about what is essential in life. Juti, an anthropologist in training, had just arrived at the group. She decided, together with Nicolas Hieronimus, chief executive officer of L’Oréal, to launch a study focused on what beauty is. This involved scientists, anthropologists, historians, stylists and doctors – among a wide range of other professions – as well as internal and external research.
“There’s this misconception that beauty is a light thing, that it’s superficial,” Juti said.
She, Hieronimus and the then new president-director of the Louvre, Laurence des Cars, had lunch.
“We were thinking: What would be another partnership?” said Juti, explaining that they were looking for a link that would reflect the heritage of L’Oréal, the world’s largest beauty company, and the Louvre, the most visited museum in the world.
The idea of a beauty tour, sponsored by L’Oréal, was born from that meeting. A team from the Louvre, together with Delphine Urbach, director of art, culture and heritage at L’Oréal, selected the works to be seen. It was deliberate not to choose oeuvres like the “Mona Lisa,” which most people already know.
Among the highlights of the exhibition – which lends credence to the fact that art, like beauty, exists in every culture and time – is the wood-and-ivory “Spoon in the Shape of a Swimmer Holding a Duck”. That dates from about 1390 to 1352 BC. and may be a votive object used to scoop cosmetics.
“King Sargon II and a High Dignitary,” from Khorsabad, Iraq, from 721 to 705 BC, is of gypsum alabaster. and shows two men with large robes and elaborate jewelry.
The “Sleeping Hermaphrodite” statue is a Roman sculpture, possibly from the second century AD, after a Greek original created around 150 BC. The subject of gender fluidity is in the public eye today.
A “Head Prince” comes from Iran around the year 1200. A small flat glass bottle of perfume is hidden in his turban.
Embracing the beauty trend of the 15thth The century is “Portrait of a Young Princess of the House of Este,” by Pisanello, dating from about 1435 to 1440. The portrait dresser had shaved part of her hair, to be as clean as possible to separate herself from animals.
Not too long after another strong beauty trend emerged. From about 1483 to 1485, Botticelli painted “Venus, Roman Goddess of Love, and the Three Degrees Giving Gifts to a Young Lady” as a fresco for a villa near Florence. The woman had long hair of a golden color that was very well inclined.
“Woman With a Mirror,” by Titian, is from about 1515. In the painting, the woman looks at her hair. Behind and in front of him is a perfume bottle and a mirror, creating a kind of old-fashioned selfie.
“Voltaire Nude,” a marble sculpture by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, dates from 1776. Created in France, it shows the writer as an elderly man.
The “Presumed Portrait of Madeline” is a painting of a Black woman by Marie-Guilhelmine Benoist that was shown in the Salon of 1800. At the time, Black skin was considered difficult to paint.
The “O All Beauty!” in total it would take two days to complete the journey for one stop at each work of art. Museum visitors can be guided through with a separate application, which is also accessible via QR codes and usable outside the museum.
The exhibition will run until March 2027.
“It was really a collaborative effort to come up with something that would be surprising and interesting,” Juti said. “We have combined our know-how,” she said, referring to L’Oréal and the Louvre.
That pairing marked the beginning of an upcoming webinar.
“You can see how the art speaks to today’s youth,” Juti said.
The results of the L’Oréal study about the essentials of beauty were presented in a book with that title, which is for the internal use of the company’s employees.
“We want to create the beauty that moves the world,” she told L’Oréal in general, citing its mission statement.
Other recent projects related to the essence of beauty include a podcast called “This Is Not a Beauty Podcast.” L’Oréal updated a series of books called “100,000 Years of Beauty,” first in 2010.
“It’s the same book, but the future has already happened,” Juti said. So that forward-looking part was rewritten.
The executive said people often underestimate the socio-economic contributions of beauty. In Europe, for example, the perfume and cosmetics industry generates 3 million jobs. Cosmetics comprise the second largest balance of trade in France, after aviation.
“But more than that, I think it’s essential for everyone,” said Juti, on beauty. “That’s where this starts.”
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