The Louvre Nude Paintings

* The ideal present for art lovers! Nudity, sensuality and sexuality in the Louvre paintings translated into a fantastic and surprising photographic concept Volume 1 of the Le Louvre Nu/The Louvre Nude series, dealing with the naked body in paintings * Winner of the Golden Pixel Award, the prestigious Austrian award for groundbreaking print products, in the category coffee-table books The idea for this book was born in the course of a visit through the Louvre, when Catherine Belanger ventured to call the Louvre 'the biggest brothel in the world'. Jointly with author Jean Galard and photographer Lois Lammerhuber, she selected key paintings spanning five centuries to illustrate the fascinating art of depicting nudity and the artists' struggle for acceptance of the nude in art and society. Lois Lammerhuber detaches the nudity, sensuality and sexuality of the paintings from the context of their artistic intention, conceiving them as 'material' in a fictional photography studio and recreating them in his photographs. He resorts to these 'models' to translate them into the language of fashion, nude and advertising photography, reading their body language and interaction in a way reminiscent of artists like Richard Avedon, Helmut Newton, Horst P. Horst or Herb Ritts - sensual and unexpected.

Jean Galard taught aesthetics at the Department of Philosophy of the University of Sao Paulo and was cultural attache of the French Institute in Casablanca, Istanbul, Mexico and Amsterdam. In 1987 he set up a cultural service at the Louvre to increase visits to the museum and raise awareness of its collections. He wrote numerous essays on subjects relating to the Louvre. Lois Lammerhuber's photographs are in demand around the world and have been published in hundreds of books and magazines, in more than 3,000 reportages and on numerous covers, and they have also won many international awards. Lammerhuber was singled out three times for the Graphis Photo Award for the year's best reportage. He frequently shows his photographs in exhibitions and for many years, has also written articles for magazines and radio. In 1996 he established Edition Lammerhuber. Catherine Belanger entered the Louvre in 1962 and was PR lady of the Louvre from 1976 to 2007. In this capacity, she organised exhibitions, photo shoots, and movie productions (among them The Da Vinci Code), an activity that earned her the nickname 'Madame Louvre'.