Good news for fansart and beauty: starting in September you will have the opportunity to take home a piece Louvrefamous Parisian museum. The Louvre teams up with Lancôme to create a makeup collection inspired by some of the most iconic images feminine strength and power is present within its walls.
Palette Richelieu Wing was created taking inspiration from “Corina” by Edme-François-Etienne Geuss, sculpted in honor of the famous Greek poetess. “This palette speaks a lot to the challenges that Corinne faced, because at that time you couldn’t be a genius and a woman at the same time,” the makeup artist said. Lisa Eldridge who is also the Creative Director of Lancôme Makeup. “Today women can make independent decisions regarding their image. One day you may decide to wear makeup, the next day you may decide not to wear makeup at all. This may not seem like a revolution, but believe me, it is.”
Greek goddess of health, Hygeiawill have its own limited version in Lancôme Advanced Génifique Serum. But it doesn’t end there. “Diana de Gabi”, a statue of Praxiteles believed to represent the goddess Artemis; the mythological nymph Echo, famously depicted in Nicolas Poussin’s painting Echo and Narcissus; life-size sculpture of the Sleeping Hermaphrodite by Gian Lorenzo Bernini; and “Nymph with a Scorpion” by Lorenzo Bartolini – The four L’Absolu Rouge lipsticks are reminiscent of these muses.
The team at Lancôme and the Louvre entered into this collaboration with the broader goal of shifting the focus traditionally placed on male artists to the women who inspired them. According to Rachelle Mladenovic, Lancôme’s marketing manager, “There’s a lot of tragedy in the artwork, and we wanted to present positive stories of women,” Mladenovic explains to Fashionista. “When we read the profiles of the women who inspired these statues, we immediately thought: ‘This is a Lancôme girl.’ We didn’t just want to choose the most famous artist or the most famous muse, we wanted to choose the most powerful.”
Lancôme deployed all its resources to launch this collection, recruiting an impressive line-up of celebrities to embody the Greek goddesses housed in the Louvre. Zendaya plays the goddess of victory, Samothrace., reproducing the spread wings of the famous Greek statue in a flowing dress. “To me, her pose represents a confident and triumphant woman,” the actress, who became a brand ambassador in 2019, said in a press release. “A powerful symbol of achievement. This is where true beauty comes in: using our history to give us wings, a way to set us free.”
He Kong she is associated with Venus de Milo, the goddess of love or the sea. Aya Nakamura appears next to the aforementioned Greek poetess Corina. Amanda SeyfriedHowever, he poses next to Diana Gabies, goddess of the Moon or the hunt. “When you stand in front of Diana, the first thing that strikes you is her beauty – delicate, yes, but underneath her appearance: powerful,” Seyfried said in a press release. “The more you look, the more you realize that she is a wild goddess. Cruel, brave. She declares her independence. That’s where her beauty comes from.”
Lancôme’s latest creation is just one example of recent collaborations between beauty brands and major museums, an unexpected combination that seems to be becoming increasingly popular. In March, Korean skincare brand Sulwhasoo announced an expanded partnership with the Metropolitan Museum of Art. And you may also remember the Brooklyn Museum’s 2019 exhibition, Frida Kahlo: Appearances Are Deceiving, sponsored in collaboration with Revlon. By joining forces, the two institutions hope to inspire a new generation of museum visitors. The Lancôme x Louvre collection is now available on the Lancôme website.