The Carter is delighted to participate in a national tour organized by the Terra Foundation for American Art of Samuel F.B. Morse’s iconic painting Gallery of the Louvre (1831–33). Though Morse is most widely known as a scientist and inventor, he was a leading artist of his time and served as president of the National Academy of Design. Gallery of the Louvre stands as one of Morse’s last great artistic achievements. Filled with his careful and personal selection of the Louvre’s finest treasures, all of which he painstakingly reproduced in miniature, the painting is a signal work of transatlantic exchange intended to connect American audiences with great European artworks.

Gallery of the Louvre, with its pictorial and thematic complexity, continues to engage audiences interested in science and technology as well as art. The Carter presents Morse’s famous painting and painted preparatory sketch in combination with works on paper from the museum’s own collection that, like Morse’s painting, feature museum and gallery spaces as their subject matter.