La Traversée du Louvre

by David Prudhomme

David Prudhomme déambule dans les galeries du musée du Louvre. Son regard embrasse les œuvres exposées, autant de chefs-d’œuvre proposés dans un espace ordonné et pensé avec soin. 35 000 œuvres côtoient ainsi les quelque dizaines de milliers de visiteurs journaliers. Car le regard de David ne se pose pas uniquement sur les tableaux, sculptures ou objets du musée… mais aussi sur leurs spectateurs. Le voilà qui observe l'étrange ballet muet qui se tisse entre les œuvres et leurs visiteurs. Couple enlacé devant Le radeau de la Méduse, homme solitaire happé dans la contemplation du scribe accroupi ou groupes agglutinés devant la Joconde, rien n'échappe au pinceau alerte de David Prudhomme, qui saisit sur le vif les attitudes des uns et des autres devant l'Art… Car combien de musées, comme le Louvre, permettent à autant de gens d'horizons si différents de se retrouver dans le même désir de se cultiver ?

Genres: Graphic Novels, Art, Comics, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Bande Dessinée, France

80 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2012

About the author

Born 1969

Reviews

[Dave Schaafsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

A kind of advertisement for the Louvre (they seem to have invited him or paid him, not sure, which is fine) about a comics guy--David Prudhomme--wandering through the Louvre watching people watch art, which is the thing he likes best about art museums. It's not really a narrative, except the boring one of his trying to find his partner, from who he is separated for a time. For an ad, it is at least about an interesting place, where great adventures can be had as we enter into the various worlds of the art. But he just wanders and talks about stuff, kind of randomly.

Prudhomme's (Rebetiko) own art (of the art there, and of people looking at the art) is pretty great. But I see there is a Kindle edition of this which is interactive, where you click on pages and it actually takes you the actual room at the Louvre. I think that version would be more interesting than this one.

[Rod Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author goes people watching at the Louvre, drawing parallels between the museum guests and the figures captured in paintings and sculptures throughout the building. It sort of brought the art to life to see how universal the expressions and poses are. The concept is stretched a bit thin though as the pages turn, and the author acts the ass talking frequently on his mobile phone as he tours the museum, but I still enjoyed it fairly well until the nonsensical ending with a flying decapitated head.

Unrelated to my rating: It's hard anymore to look at a museum display of Egyptian artifacts and think of anything except provenance and repatriation.

[Alan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not too much to this one, outside of the main character browsing the Louvre, which, seeing as this is a book funded by the Louvre, could be seen as a huge advertisement. There is Rembrandt’s Self-portrait at an Easel. There is Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People. And of course, there is a line. A massive line. “Everyone here is doing pretty much like me. Everyone wants to see her. But once you’ve seen her, what do you do? And do people ever think about what she sees?” (Hint: it is Veronese’s The Wedding Feast at Cana, which is far more interesting – and I am not just saying that to be a contrarian). If you want to stir up some immediate lust for some beautiful art, take a look at this, but don’t come for the story.

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

La traversée might initially be off-putting, since preliminary conclusions lead to something like "it's an ad for The Louvre which commences with no plot whatsoever other than some strange, rambling man toodling around the halls on his cell phone." Closer reading reveals that, although it is indeed a textually-sparse ad for The Louvre, there is a deeper story going on, one where the audience becomes the art, and where observing the audience becoming art becomes art, and The Louvre is examined as a place to float off into the clouds of wonder, joy, mystery and life's reasons, great and small. La traversée finishes by reminding us that art is everywhere, and that art galleries, and the lessons learned therein, can have an ever-lasting influence on our lives. This is beautiful art, and the art of art, although I don't always care for the artist's use of light blue and pink on audience faces. Art.

True Rating: 3.8 Stars

[Klinton Saha · Rating 3 out of 5]

ল্যুভর মিউজিয়াম - শিল্প সমঝদার ও শিল্পীদের আকর্ষণের অন্যতম পীঠস্থান। এখানে আছে বিখ্যাত সব চিত্রকর্ম ও ভাস্কর্য।প্রায় চার লাখ চিত্রকর্ম ৩৫,০০০ প্রদর্শনীতে আছে। একটা চিত্রকর্ম দেখতে গড়ে ১০ সেকেন্ড সময় নিলে সম্পূর্ণ ভবন পরিদর্শন করতে চারদিন লাগবে। একটা প্রদর্শনীতে গড়ে ১০ টা করে ছবি তুললে দৈনিক ৩৫০,০০০ টা ছবি তোলা হয় এই জাদুঘরে।বছরে ৯০০০,০০০ জন দর্শনার্থীদের সমাগম ঘটে এখানে যার ৬৭% বিদেশি।

এই বইটিতে মূলত ল্যুভর মিউজিয়াম পরিদর্শনে এসে দর্শনার্থীরা কিভাবে শিল্পকে গ্রহণ করে, অনুধাবন করে ও তাদের বিভিন্ন অঙ্গভঙ্গিকে তুলে ধরা হয়েছে যেন মনে হয় জীবন্ত। ড্রইংগুলো খুব ডিটেলস না এবং বহুলাংশে সংলাপ বিহীন । জাদুঘরে না গিয়েও দর্শনার্থীদের প্রতিক্রিয়া খুব ভালোভাবে বোঝা যায় ড্রইংগুলো দেখে।

[Julianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spent a very very happy afternoon at the library cozied up reading this book and delighting in every single page. Find a copy where you are, I promise it's worth it.

[Sylvester (Taking a break in 2023) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5* I enjoyed the idea that walking through an art museum is similar to reading a graphic novel. Each painting is a scene, and the author is walking through a life-size story. My favorite bit was the moment where he is in a room with a crowd of people staring at the Mona Lisa, and he wonders, "What does she think of all this? What does she see?"

[Melissa Orth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfect for art teachers. The dialogue is a little abstract and at times forced in order to form a narrative but the images are creative and require reflection: they are observations of visitors and how they interact with art in the museum, from selfies to contrived poses to random mirror images and similarities. Quite clever at times. The facts appended about the Louvre are fascinating.

[Bill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Amusing, brief graphic novel about the artist wandering through the Louvre, ostensibly searching for his girlfriend, and also seeking inspiration on how to convey his visit in a graphic novel. It's a bit meta and a bit cryptic, but somehow that works -- especially in conveying the strange ways that art interacts with us as much as we interact with it.

[Delphine · Rating 3 out of 5]

L'idée est fort intéressante, le rendu originale mais je n'aime pas le graphisme de l'auteur donc je reste mitigée.

[Louis Skye · Rating 2 out of 5]

Borrowed this book so I could see the Louvre again (not sure when I’ll be able to go again considering the pandemic). It’s quite a quirky little book, in that it has little direction. That works at times, but ultimately is to the book’s disadvantage.

I thought this book would be about the protagonist looking at some of the works at the Louvre. Maybe, a little analysis on why some works are more popular than others.

I wondered whether this book might be about the artworks analyzing the people, or at least the protagonist/ author studying visitors.

I also thought it would be a little mystery set at the Louvre.

This book is all of those and none of those. The author looks at the people around him, ponders on what the Mona Lisa sees, and is driven by the mystery of finding his partner who has got separated from him in the museum.

But none of these plot points are dissected. They just happen to be part of the book so there’s not much we can take from the experience of reading it.

This ended up being some light reading but I wanted something deeper, something that took me to the Louvre and kept me there. I breezed past the pages when I wasn’t trying to recognise the art.

I did like the art and the effort put in to recreate the galleries. That must have taken an enormous amount of research and time. But I didn’t get the experience I wanted from this book, so that’s a bit disappointing.

[Jane(Janelba) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful artwork. Great little story of people looking at art who then become art by others watching them looking at the art.

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Gezeichnete Standbilder inspiriert von Besuchenden des Louvre. Ungefähr so spannend, wie das jetzt klingt.

[Ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Praticamente una pubblicità del Louvre, ma poco ispirata.

[Caro · Rating 1 out of 5]

This wasn't as interesting as I thought it would be. It's not really showing much of the museum. But it does give a scope of what it would be like to go through it. The art was ok also. Not great, but not completely terrible. Good luck

[Lisbeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an enjoyable story!

[Scott Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wasn't much of a story, but instead a beautiful representation of the Louvre. Never have I wanted to have an all day visit at The Louvre more than I do after reading this graphic novel.

[Stewart Tame · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was enjoyable, but decidedly on the light and inconsequential side. The title pretty much sums up the book. A man spends the entire book wandering through the Louvre trying to find Jeanne, who is either his girlfriend or wife or at least a woman of some significance in his life. Throughout his meanderings, we get glimpses of the different ways in which people behave in art museums. Prudhomme has a nice eye for human behavior. I've never been to the Louvre itself, but I've been to a few museums in my day. I've definitely seen these people before, and even been some of them myself. There are also some moments noting resemblances between the art and the people looking at it. And that's about it. The artwork is lovely. Prudhomme has a cartoony style that would be at home on the pages of the New Yorker. He has a nice sense of color that manages to be bright without overwhelming the pages. This is neither a great book, nor a terrible one. It's light and trifling, but pleasant enough in its own way.

[Iida M-I · Rating 5 out of 5]

En ole käynyt kuin Louvren ulkopuolella, mutta tällaista suurinpiirtein olen kuvitellut museossa olevan. Itsensä kadottamista ihmisten ja taiteen keskellä. Piirrostyyliä en jälleen kerran voi kuin ihastella. Kuvissa piirtäjän/museokävijän Katse nostaa esiin yksityiskohtia, joihin uppoutuu..

[Maggie Gordon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful art, but not a lot of substance. It's both surreal, but also a straight forward exercise in people watching. Worth a look, but I am glad I borrowed it from the library.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

There are plenty of worse ways to spend 20 minutes. Do one of those worse things instead.

[Charlie Egon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Viel zu sehen

[Charlotte Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of anything to do with art history and I thought a graphic novel on the subject would be interesting.

As it is written in a visual medium, I was impressed with how the author illustrated this book, really portraying the atmosphere of the museum perfectly. The focus was also on the people in the gallery rather than the artworks so it made a realistic peek into the way other people experience art.

However, overall I found there to be no point to the book. The life drawing aspects were interesting but the fact that there was no plot and the museum itself could have been any museum as there was no real focus on the art, I felt like I had to push myself to finish this one.

2 out of 5 stars!

[Razieh Shojaee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This graphic book was very interesting. It is exactly as the title describes, David Prudhomme depicts a character wandering through the Louvre Museum in Paris. The art (which consisted of pencil/color pencil drawings) were quite beautiful in my opinion. The paintings themselves did resemble the original famous works, such as the Mona Lisa and Rembrandt and Eugene Delacroix's "La Liberte guidant le peuple". I liked the book itself, though I was a bit confused as to what happened to Jeanne, the character whom David so desperately tries to find and contact in the Louvre. But overall, the style of the artwork was what really made this book it enjoyable.

[verbava · Rating 4 out of 5]

коміксист, який, здається, вже трохи не вкладається в терміни з новою книжкою (чи принаймні в нього дуже відповідальні редактори, які йому ще до дедлайнів активно надзвонюють), блукає лувром і трохи роздивляється мистецтво, а більше — людей, які це мистецтво споглядають, самі ним стаючи, якщо на них правильно сфокусуватися.

це реклама, звісно, — лувр наробив цілу серію таких реклам — і в ній годі дошукуватися якогось глибшого сюжету; але вона достатньо гарна і самосвідома, щоб від неї більше нічого й не хотілося.

[Vintagebooklvr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some very good graphic/comic strip representations of masterpieces. Also an interesting idea of how to go through an art museum, but at the same time, probably those of us who have gone through art museums have at times gotten bored or tired of standing and done people staring while sitting.

[Alejandro Sierra · Rating 3 out of 5]

Está corta novela gráfica tiene una línea libre, minimalista y una paleta de color muy posh. Es una interpretación naive de cómo se siente estar en el Louvre. Comparten información histórica del museo acerca de su construcción y capacidad.

[Jerry Summers · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the concept of people watching art. The artist captures the beauty of the art and how visitors appreciate the works. He concept is true while cruising. You appreciate the art work of these boutique hotels at sea and the mass of humanity that either appreciate the works or just amble.

[Bryanzk · Rating 5 out of 5]

what a piece of artwork itself! the pastel like touches are really beautiful!

[Nisreen Nijmeh · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 It made me want to go to a museum and people watch.