Artists at the Museum

To mark the 400th anniversary of the National Museum of Natural History, the exhibition Artists at the Museum, on display in the Grande Galerie de l’Evolution, showcases an exceptional collection of over 300 works from 23 September 2026 to 7 March 2027.

When art contributes to knowledge

Since the 17th century, the Jardin des Plantes has been a unique place where artists and scientists come together, observe, experiment and mutually enrich their practices. Drawings, paintings, sculptures, photographs, taxidermy specimens, films and architectural works tell this shared story, in which the image becomes both a tool for knowledge and a source of wonder.

The exhibition also offers a behind-the-scenes look at how scientific imagery is created. Long before the advent of photography, the accurate depiction of animals, plants and minerals was essential to the advancement of the natural sciences. Engravings, paintings on vellum, microscopy and innovative uses of colour bear witness to this quest for accuracy, which has made the National Museum of Natural History a veritable artistic laboratory. The exhibition features, in particular, three previously unseen vellum works created especially for the event: a dinosaur reconstruction by Jean-François Dejouannet, a new plant species illustrated by Ludivine Longou and a marine microorganism depicted by Didier Geffard-Kuriyama.

From Le Douanier Rousseau to contemporary artists

You will encounter iconic figures who found an inexhaustible source of inspiration at the Muséum. Le Douanier Rousseau observed exotic plants and animals there without ever leaving Paris. Later, Salvador Dalí, François Pompon, Alberto Giacometti, Bernard Buffet and Chris Marker also frequented this extraordinary creative space in turn.
The exhibition continues to the present day with works by 40 contemporary artists, including Enki Bilal, Ali Cherri, Sarah Moon, Ernest Pignon-Ernest and Nicolas Floc’h. Their creations bear witness to the evolution of the dialogue between the arts and science and explore the major environmental challenges of our time, from global warming to the loss of biodiversity. Behind each work lies a shared ambition: to better understand living things in order to appreciate them more fully.

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