The Musée du Louvre in Paris is hosting an exhibition dedicated to Martin Schongauer, a 15th-century German engraver and painter, from April 8 to July 20, 2026. The show, titled "Martin Schongauer. Le bel immortel," occupies the mezzanine Napoléon spaces and features his engravings, including the famous "Encensoir" (censer), alongside loans from the Musée Unterlinden in Colmar. It is the first major Schongauer exhibition in France since the 1991 quincentenary of his death, which saw shows at the Petit Palais in Paris and the Unterlinden Museum.
This exhibition matters because it reintroduces a relatively obscure but historically pivotal artist to a broad public, highlighting the enduring quality of his graphic work. By placing Schongauer in dialogue with the Louvre's collections and the concurrent "Michel-Ange Rodin" exhibition, the museum underscores the continuity and evolution of European artistic traditions. The show also reaffirms the importance of the Société Schongauer and the Unterlinden Museum as custodians of his legacy, while inviting specialists to reassess the scholarship from 1991.