Friday marks five years since Louvre Abu Dhabi welcomed the first members of the public.
It is also 15 years since the project was first approved by the French Parliament, and Paris's Louvre Museum signed a Dh1.92 billion agreement to allow Abu Dhabi’s museum to use its name for three decades.
The opening ceremony for the Arab world’s first universal museum was marked with traditional Emirati dances beneath Jean Nouvel’s remarkable dome, a flypast by an Etihad A380 and a striking light show.
Speaking at the time, Manuel Rabate, Louvre Abu Dhabi’s director, said it was a special day. “You see people from all over the world," he added. "Emiratis, expatriates and tourists all together — mesmerised by the dome, the artworks, by the Children’s Museum.
“I see people carrying bags from the boutiques, bringing back books, presents. It’s exciting. It’s a good picture of what days in Louvre Abu Dhabi could look like.”
Meanwhile, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, said the museum will be a "meeting point for lovers of art, culture and beauty all around the world".
“With the opening of this museum, Abu Dhabi has become the capital of art, architecture and mankind’s heritage," he added.
From its inception, Louvre Abu Dhabi has aimed to explore common humanity and the things that bind rather than divide the world’s various cultures and civilisations.
This spirit flowed through the museum’s first special exhibition From One Louvre to Another: Opening a Museum for Everyone, which featured 150 masterpieces from the Palace of Versailles and Louvre Museum, including statues, paintings and ceramics from around the world.
The approach was also encapsulated by the loan of Leonardo da Vinci’s La Belle Ferronniere by Louvre Museum, which stayed in Abu Dhabi until 2019. Fittingly, the French museum has loaned Louvre Abu Dhabi another Leonardo masterpiece to celebrate its fifth anniversary — Saint John the Baptist, which arrived last week.
When it arrived, Rabate told The National: “The arrival of the globally revered masterpiece, Saint John the Baptist, as Louvre Abu Dhabi celebrates its five-year anniversary, is symbolic of our enduring collaboration with our partners in France and reinforces Abu Dhabi’s position as a global cultural centre.”
Louvre Abu Dhabi was designed to awe visitors for centuries; if its exhibitions and collections are anything to go by, the best, it seems, is yet to come.
Scroll through images of Louvre Abu Dhabi's impressionism exhibition below
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'Bazille Studio' (1870), oil on canvas by Frederic Bazille and Edouard Manet. Victor Besa / The National -
'Floor Scrapers' (1875), oil on canvas by Gustave Caillebotte. Victor Besa / The National -
'In the Cafe' (1880), oil on canvas by Gustave Caillebotte. Victor Besa / The National -
'The Bezique Game' (1880), oil on canvas by Gustave Caillebotte. Victor Besa / The National -
'Spring' (1857), oil on canvas by Charles-Francois Daubigny. Victor Besa / The National -
'Woman with a Coffee Pot' (1890-95), oil on canvas by Paul Cezanne. Victor Besa / The National -
Sylvie Patry, chief curator and deputy director for Collections and Curatorial Affairs at Musée d’Orsay. Victor Besa / The National -
'Apples and Oranges' (1839), oil on canvas by Paul Cezanne. Victor Besa / The National -
'The Pastures under a Cloudy Sky' (1856-60), oil on canvas by Constant Troyon. Victor Besa / The National -
'Family Reunion' (1867-1841), oil on canvas by Frederic Bazille. Victor Besa / The National -
'The Cup of Chocolate' (1877-78), oil on canvas by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Victor Besa / The National -
'The Ice Floes' (1880), oil on canvas by Claude Monet. Victor Besa / The National -
'The Improvised Field Hospital' (1865), oil on canvas by Frederic Bazille. Victor Besa / The National -
'A Studio at Les Batignolles' (1870), oil on canvas by Henri Fantin-Latour. Victor Besa / The National -
'The Two Sisters' (1863), oil on canvas by James Tissot. Victor Besa / The National -
'Rue Montorgueil, Paris' (1878), oil on canvas by Claude Monet. Victor Besa / The National -
'Saint-Lazare Railway Station' (1877), oil on canvas by Claude Monet. Victor Besa / The National -
'The Balcony' (1868-69), oil on canvas by Edouard Manet. Victor Besa / The National -
'Floor Scrapers' by Gustave Cailebotte, oil on canvas. Khushnum Bhandari / The National -
The exhibition is running until February. Khushnum Bhandari / The National -
It highlights how the French artists, known as 'the impressionists', were rebels of their time. Khushnum Bhandari / The National -
Their vibrant brushstrokes and outdoor landscapes broke conventional art rules in the 19th century. Khushnum Bhandari / The National -
'The Lady with the Glove' by Carlos-Duran. Khushnum Bhandari / The National
