Written By: Ben Cosgrove
When it comes to the excellence of their collections, the beauty of their galleries and the sheer breadth of their cultural significance, few museums on earth can match Paris’ monumental jewel, the Louvre. In 1953, when LIFE photographer Dmitri Kessel visited, many of the Louvre’s rooms had recently been reorganized and redecorated but the intrinsic, inherent grandeur of the vast place (eight miles of galleries) remained undiminished.
Here, LIFE.com presents a selection of Kessel’s pictures of the scenes inside what LIFE unhesitatingly called “the world’s top museum”—a title to which, even today, six decades later, the wonderful, storied, glorious Louvre can arguably still lay claim.
Aerial view of the Louvre and the Tuileries Garden, 1953.
Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, the Louvre, 1953.
Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Patrons view Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, the Louvre, 1953.
Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock
The Raft of the Medusa, the Louvre
Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Children take notes during a discussion of ancient Greek pottery at the Louvre, 1953.
Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Venus de Milo, the Louvre, 1953.
Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Married couple and their young daughter view the crown of King Louis XV at the Louvre, 1953.
Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock
The Louvre, 1953.
Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Original caption: “Loading statue, worker places Roman carving of athlete on carriage to be taken to workshop where legs, put on by an earlier restorer, will be removed.”
Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Artists scrutinize their versions of a Titian portrait (left) and the Mona Lisa (right), Louvre, 1953.
Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock
The Louvre, 1953.
Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Dusting a sculpture at the Louvre
Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Painting of Jeanne d’Aragon by Raphael at the Louvre.
Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock
Apollon gallery at the Louvre.
Dmitri Kessel Time & Life Pictures/Shutterstock
