Le Louvre, toutes les peintures

At a time when the transfers to Lens give food to debates, who can tell us how many paintings the Louvre Museum exhibits in its Parisian premises? This book makes the census of the approximately 3000 of them. This can be a pleasant way of console ourselves for the current absences or those to follow. This also allows us to check that aside from its wealth in French painting or in Italian Renaissance art, the Louvre has a few weaknesses, such as the small number of Spanish paintings –in spite of its numerous Goyas – or its few Anglo-Saxon works. Indeed only some twenty paintings are hung up in the museum. The journey of Master Hare by Joshua Reynolds to Lens represents a loss of 5% of this patrimony…

• Le Louvre, toutes les peintures, by Erich Lessing (photos) and Vincent Pomarède (texts), Skira Flammarion, 2012, 764 p., €52