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2-Hour Louvre Itinerary: The Essential Masterpieces

This route is for a first Louvre visit with about two hours inside the galleries. It keeps four icons fixed, then adds four major Denon paintings that require very little extra walking. The goal is not to cover the museum: it is to leave having seen its most important works without rushing every room.

How the two-hour route works

Start in the Denon wing and collect works that share the same rooms or corridor before crossing to the Venus de Milo in Sully. The Wedding at Cana is essential here: it hangs directly opposite the Mona Lisa, so it adds a world-famous painting without adding another room.

Security, lockers and the walk from the Pyramid are not included in the gallery time. Arrive before your ticket slot and keep roughly 10–15 minutes in reserve for the exit.

The 8 works to see

  1. © 2024 GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Rabeau/Didierjean

    Denon, Level 1, Room 700

    Liberty Leading the People

    Eugène Delacroix

    Flexible stop

    Delacroix’s defining image of the July Revolution and one of the Louvre’s most recognizable French paintings.

  2. © 2015 GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Michel Urtado

    Denon, Level 1, Room 700

    The Raft of the Medusa

    Théodore Géricault

    Flexible stop

    A monumental Romantic painting in the same room, so it costs no additional navigation time.

  3. © 2018 GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Michel Urtado

    Denon, Level 1, Room 702

    The Coronation of Napoleon

    Jacques-Louis David

    Flexible stop

    David’s enormous record of imperial spectacle; view it from the centre before looking at its portraits and ceremony.

  4. © 2017 GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Franck Raux

    Denon, Level 1, Room 702

    La Grande Odalisque

    Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres

    Flexible stop

    Ingres’s elegant, deliberately elongated figure is already beside the large French history paintings.

  5. © 2014 Musée du Louvre, Dist. GrandPalaisRmn / Philippe Fuzeau

    Denon, Level 1, Daru staircase

    Winged Victory of Samothrace

    Hellenistic art

    Must see

    Pause below the staircase first, then move closer to see the wind-driven drapery and ship-shaped base.

  6. © 2018 GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Michel Urtado

    Denon, Level 1, Room 711

    Mona Lisa

    Leonardo da Vinci

    Must see

    Expect the busiest stop. Use the main queue, take a short look, and do not spend the whole visit waiting for the closest position.

  7. © 2019 GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) / Michel Urtado

    Denon, Level 1, Room 711

    The Wedding at Cana

    Paolo Veronese

    Must see

    Turn around after the Mona Lisa: Veronese’s vast banquet scene fills the opposite wall.

  8. © 2011 Musée du Louvre, Dist. GrandPalaisRmn / Thierry Ollivier

    Sully, Level 0, Room 345

    Venus de Milo

    Ancient Greece

    Must see

    Finish with the Louvre’s best-known ancient Greek sculpture and view its twisting pose from more than one side.

Open the ready-made 2-hour route

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