PARIS — Beauty has been essential to humankind for time eternal, and a newly planned route through the Louvre museum, created with L’Oréal, crystalizes that essence in art.
One-hundred-and-eight works, of which 44 are major oeuvres, were chosen as stops along the path of “De Toutes Beautés!” (or “Of All Beauties!”), which opens to the public on Nov. 13. It’s a walk through time and space, spanning 10,000 years of history as well as cultures from Greece to Iraq and Italy.
“Beauty has been essential to humanity pretty much from Homo erectus all the way to the metaverse,” said Blanca Juti, chief corporate affairs and engagement officer at L’Oréal, during a sitdown interview at company headquarters in the Paris suburb of Clichy. “Because we actually even care how we look virtually.
“Beauty changes with time, but it also changes the time,” she continued. “We know that beauty is important, especially when times are hard. So when you’ve been sick, for instance, to return back to society, to feel good about yourself, makeup is very important.”
Beauty gestures — like bathing or applying fragrance — are part of people’s everyday lives.
“Head of a Prince” from Iran in approximately 1200.
Photo by Nicolas Romieu / Courtesy of L’Oréal
“We know that beauty is both individual self-expression as well as taking care of yourself, which gives confidence,” said Juti. “It also marks 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 instance, often wore kohl around their eyes. “There’s cultures and countercultures,” said Juti.
During the coronavirus pandemic, a great debate erupted over what’s essential in life. Juti, an anthropologist by training, had just arrived at the group. She, together with Nicolas Hieronimus, L’Oréal‘s chief executive officer, decided to launch a study focused on what is beauty. That involved scientists, anthropologists, historians, stylists and doctors — among a wide swath of other metiers — plus internal and external research.
“There is this misperception that beauty is a light subject, that it is superficial,” said Juti.
She, Hieronimus and the-then new president-director of the Louvre, Laurence des Cars, had a lunch.
“We were thinking: What would be a different partnership?” said Juti, explaining they were seeking a tie-in that would reflect both the heritage of L’Oréal, the world’s biggest beauty company, and the Louvre, the most visited museum in the world.
The idea of a beauty journey, which L’Oréal sponsors, was birthed at that meeting of minds. A team from the Louvre, alongside Delphine Urbach, director of art, culture and heritage at L’Oréal, selected the works to be featured. It was deliberate not to choose oeuvres such as the “Mona Lisa,” which most people already know.
Among the highlights of the exhibit — that gives credence to the fact that art, like beauty, has existed in every culture and time — is the wooden-and-ivory “Spoon in the Shape of a Swimmer Holding a Duck.” That dates from about 1390 to 1352 B.C. and is possibly a votive object used to scoop cosmetics.
“King Sargon II and a High Dignitary,” hailing from Khorsabad, Iraq, from 721 to 705 B.C., is of gypsum alabaster and shows two men with lavish coifs and elaborate jewelry.
The “Sleeping Hermaphrodite” sculpture is Roman, from possibly the second century A.D., after a Greek original created around 150 B.C. The subject linked to gender fluidity is topical today.
“Head of a Prince” comes from Iran in about the year 1200. There is a small, flat glass bottle of fragrance hidden in its turban.
Encapsulating a beauty trend of the 15th century is “Portrait of a Young Princess of the House of Este,” by Pisanello, dating from about 1435 to 1440. The portrait-sitter had some of her hair shaven off, in order to be as pure as possible to distance herself from animals.
“Venus, the Roman Goddess of Love, and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman” by Botticelli between 1483 and 1485.
Photo by Nicolas Romieu / Courtesy of L’Oréal
Not too long after another strong beauty trend emerged. From around 1483 to 1485, Botticelli painted “Venus, the Roman Goddess of Love, and the Three Graces Presenting Gifts to a Young Woman” as a fresco for a villa near Florence. The women depicted in it had very well-tended, long golden-colored hair.
There is “Woman With a Mirror,” by Titian, from about 1515. In the painting, the woman looks at her hair. She has a fragrance bottle and a mirror behind and in front of her, creating a sort of old-time selfie.
“Voltaire Nude,” a marble sculpture by Jean-Baptiste Pigalle, dates from 1776. Created in France, it shows the writer as an older man.
The “Presumed Portrait of Madeline” is a painting of a Black woman by Marie-Guilhelmine Benoist exhibited at the Salon of 1800. At the time, Black skin was considered difficult to paint.
“Presumed Portrait of Madeline” by Marie-Guilhelmine Benoist was exhibited at the Salon of 1800.
Photo by Nicolas Romieu / Courtesy of L’Oréal
The entire “Of All Beauties!” journey would take two days to complete should one stop at each artwork. Museum visitors can be guided through it with a specific application, which is also accessible via QR codes and usable outside the museum.
The exhibit will run through March 2027.
“It really was a very collaborative work of finding what would be surprising and interesting,” said Juti. “We’ve combined our know-hows,” she added, referring to L’Oréal and the Louvre.
That coupling also birthed an upcoming webinar.
“You can see how art speaks to today’s youth,” said Juti.
Findings from L’Oréal’s study about the essentiality of beauty were expressed in a book with that title, which is for company employees’ internal use.
“We want to create the beauty that moves the world,” she said of L’Oréal at large, citing its mission statement.
Other recent projects associated to the essentiality of beauty include a podcast, called “This Is Not a Beauty Podcast.” L’Oréal also updated a series of books, titled “100,000 Years of Beauty,” first out in 2010.
“It’s the same book, but the future has already happened,” said Juti. So that forward-looking section was rewritten.
The executive said people often underestimate beauty’s socioeconomic contributions. In Europe, for instance, the fragrance and cosmetics industry generates 3 million jobs. Cosmetics comprise the second-largest trade balance in France, after aeronautics.
“But more than that, I think it is essential for every individual,” said Juti, of beauty. “That’s where this starts.”
