Faces of Artists - From Gustave Courbet to Annette Messager - Through July 19, 2026

Gustave Courbet, Self-Portrait with a Black Dog. 

The Petit Palais presents a fresh exploration of a central theme in its collections: the portrait and the artist’s self-portrait. The exhibition brings together a wide-ranging selection of 19th-century works, including paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, and decorative arts.

She seeks to explore the role of the artist’s portrait, which can serve as a testament to esteem or camaraderie, a sign of creative kinship, or a critical perspective tinged with irony.

At the same time, the museum is showcasing a selection of about ten contemporary female artists based in Paris who are reinterpreting the concept of the portrait today.

Across generations, they have helped reshape traditional notions of the artist by drawing on the diversity of their life experiences. Straddling introspection and aesthetic statement, their works assert a new conception of artistic identity: “I am my work.”