More than 30,000 tourists visit the Louvre Museum in Paris daily, adding up to 10 million visitors annually.
Of these visitors, at least twenty-five thousand spend more than five minutes in front of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa daily.
It is the most famous painting in the Parisian art museum.
This article shares everything you should know about the Mona Lisa painting in the Louvre Museum before your visit.
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Table of contents
Mona Lisa: What to expect?
Many visitors expect the Mona Lisa painting in the Louvre Museum to be a massive work of art, but it is actually a tiny masterpiece.
Its dimensions are 77 cm × 53 cm (2.5 ft × 1.7 ft).
The Museum has taken great care to preserve and protect the painting; visitors can view it in a specially designed, climate-controlled room.
The painting is behind a thick layer of bulletproof glass, and security measures are in place to ensure its safety.
The glass cover has been a safety precaution since the early 1950s when a visitor poured acid on it.
In 2019, the Louvre Museum placed the portrait behind a transparent bulletproof glass made with the latest technology, making the painting appear closer.
Some visitors get disappointed
Some visitors feel let down when they see Mona Lisa for the first time.
They have seen and heard a lot about the masterpiece (after all, it is the most recognizable painting in the world) and are excited about finally seeing the Mona Lisa.
But when they enter Room 711 and notice that it is a small painting, kept far away, and because of the security and the crowd, they can’t get closer and enjoy the art’s nuances, and they feel disappointed.
However, everyone agrees that Mona Lisa’s enigmatic expression is worth seeing in person at least once in their lifetime.
The painting’s small size, mysterious smile, and the enigmatic subject of the portrait have contributed to its enduring popularity and fame.
We recommend you read this article thoroughly and know everything about Leonardo’s masterpiece so that you can appreciate it when it is in front of you.
Visual Story: 16 must-know tips before visiting the Louvre Museum
Louvre Museum Mona Lisa tickets
Many visitors to the Louvre Museum wonder if they need to buy a separate Mona Lisa ticket to see the masterpiece.
Well, no.
The regular Louvre Museum ticket allows you to see all the exhibits on display in the art museum.
If your primary aim of visiting the Louvre Museum is to spend time with Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, it is best to book the Louvre entry ticket, which comes with guidance on Mona Lisa.
If you are an art lover, we recommend the guided tour of the Louvre Museum because of three reasons:
– You don’t waste your time trying to find the exhibits
– You don’t miss out on any of the masterpieces at The Louvre Museum
– Expert guides share in-depth knowledge, exciting stories, anecdotes, etc. about the artwork
Tourists who want to control every aspect of their visit (such as start time, what to see, when to pause, etc.) book a private guided tour of the Louvre Museum.
If you are visiting with your young ones, we recommend this guided tour customized for children.
Where is Mona Lisa located
Mona Lisa is in the ‘Paintings’ section in the Denon wing of the Louvre.
To see Mona Lisa, you must head to Room 711, 1st floor, Denon Wing.
See the map below to find out where’s the Mona Lisa (its exact location) –
Since Denon Wing has some of the most famous Louvre Museum exhibits, it attracts most tourists.
Besides Mona Lisa, you will find two other brilliant paintings, Jacques-Louis David’s ‘The Coronation of Napoleon’ and Delacroix’s ‘Liberty Leading the People’ on the first floor, Denon Wing.
On the same floor, you must not miss three sculptures – Antonio Canova’s ‘Psyche Revived by the Kiss of Love,’ Michelangelo’s ‘Dying Slave,’ and the Winged Victory of Samothrace.
Download the Louvre Museum’s floor plan
Best time to see Mona Lisa painting
The best time to see the Mona Lisa painting is as soon as the Louvre Museum opens at 9 am.
As soon as you enter the museum, rush to Room 711, 1st floor, Denon Wing, and see the Mona Lisa from all angles before the crowds arrive.
If you can’t make it in the morning, the next best time to see the Mona Lisa is after 4 pm because large tourist groups, such as school kids, coach tour groups, etc., have left.
You can be at the Louvre Museum after lunch and start by exploring the rest of the exhibits. Time your visit to Room 711 after 4 pm.
If you buy Louvre Museum tickets online and do not waste time at the long ticket counter queues, you can be one of the early entrants.
It can get crowded in front of Leonardo’s masterpiece during peak times. Check out the pics below –
On Wednesdays and Fridays, the Louvre closes late—at 9.45 pm—and that’s also a great time to see the Mona Lisa because the crowd is thin.
If you plan to visit after dark, follow the link to learn everything about visiting the Louvre Museum at night.
Yet another attraction of a night visit to the art museum is the Louvre Pyramid, which gets all lit up.
Find out everything about Louvre Museum tickets.
History of Mona Lisa
Leonardo Da Vinci started painting this portrait in Florence, Italy, around 1503.
Experts believe that the portrait is of Lisa Gherardini, wife of a Florentine cloth merchant named Francesco del Giocondo, which is why the Mona Lisa painting is also called La Gioconda.
The merchant had commissioned the painting because he wanted to thank his wife for giving him two children.
After Leonardo finished the portrait, he didn’t give it to the cloth merchant or his wife. Instead, he brought it to France.
Leonardo held the painting close to him for more than 15 years, and only at his death in 1519 did he part with it, leaving it to his friend and patron, French King Francois I.
The King hung Leonardo’s painting in the Appartement des Bains in the Palace at Fontainebleau.
After the French Revolution, the painting has primarily stayed in the Louvre Museum.
Mona Lisa spent a brief period on Napolean Bonaparte’s bedroom wall in the Tuileries Palace.
In 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen by a patriotic Italian, who believed that since Leonardo was an Italian, his masterpiece must also be in Italy and not France.
Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is one of the significant differences between Musee d’Orsay and The Louvre. If you aren’t sure which art gallery to visit, check out our comparison of the two Parisian landmarks.
FAQs about Mona Lisa
Here are some questions tourists planning to see the Mona Lisa usually ask.
Perhaps one of the greatest geniuses of our times, Leonardo da Vinci, painted the Mona Lisa from 1503 to 1506. He was also an architect, an engineer, and a theatrical producer.
Mona Lisa’s original size is 77 cm × 53 cm (2.5 ft × 1.7 ft). In the Louvre Museum, the painting has a frame around it, which makes it seem a bit bigger.
According to Leonardo da Vinci’s biographer, Giorgio Vasari, the painter started the Mona Lisa in 1503 and completed it in four years.
Mona Lisa, from Leonardo da Vinci’s painting, was a real person.
She was a real Florentine woman, born and raised in Florence under the name of Lisa Gherardini. She died in 1542 at the age of 63.
Some art experts believe the Mona Lisa could have been Gian Giacomo Caprotti, Leonardo’s apprentice and probable gay lover. Gian, who was also known as Salai, may have modeled for the painting.
One can spot several striking similarities when one compares Mona Lisa’s painting to Salai’s available portraits. Especially Mona Lisa’s nose, her forehead, and her smile.
Interestingly, one can rearrange the letters that form ‘Mona Lisa’ to ‘Mon Salai.’ Mon in French means ‘My,’ suggesting Leonardo wanted to say ‘My Salai.’
Yes, Mona Lisa is smiling in the painting, and the mysteriousness of her smile has captivated people for generations. When Dutch researchers from the University of Amsterdam ran Mona Lisa through an ’emotion recognition’ software, they found that Mona Lisa’s famous smile was 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful, 2% angry, less than 1% neutral, and 0% surprised.
Art experts believe that Leonardo Da Vinci painted eyebrows on the Mona Lisa. However, restoration efforts made before better technologies were wiped them out. Parisian engineer Pascal Cotte used 240-megapixel scans to find traces of a left eyebrow long obscured from the naked eye by the restorers’ efforts.
Yes, the original Mona Lisa, painted by Leonardo da Vinci, has been part of the Louvre Museum’s collection for over two centuries. It was first installed in the Grand Gallery of the Louvre in 1804.
When ace painter Leonardo da Vinci died in 1519, he passed on the Mona Lisa to his friend and art patron, King Francois I of France. The King hung the Mona Lisa in his Palace, but after the French Revolution from 1789 to 1799, most of the art owned by the Royals made it to public institutions.
Mona Lisa came to the Louvre Museum in 1804.
Art connoisseurs consider the Mona Lisa a masterpiece because of Leonardo da Vinci’s techniques while painting it. The almost forgotten painting technique called Sfumato (Italian for smoke) is a slow process in which the paint is applied in thin layers. Leonardo da Vinci painted one layer, let it dry, and then painted on top of it again. He repeated this procedure several times until the masterpiece was complete. Experts believe Leonardo took four years to complete the Mona Lisa because of this slow process.
Through his paintings, Leonardo Da Vinci has tried to convey the idea of happiness. It is no coincidence that the second name of the merchant who commissioned the painting was ‘Gioconda,’ meaning ‘joyous’ in Italian. That’s why there is so much emphasis on Mona Lisa’s smile. At the same level as the sitter’s chest are a winding road and a bridge in warm colors. This winding road represents the path between the ‘happy’ space where the sitter is currently and the distance represented by an uninhabited area of rocks and water stretching to the horizon.
Museums generally own masterpieces such as the Mona Lisa for art lovers to view. Since they rarely sell them, they are considered priceless.
However, in 1962, Mona Lisa was assessed at US$100 million for insurance purposes. Considering inflation, that would mean US$850 million in 2019. Guinness World Records lists Mona Lisa as having the highest ever insurance value for a painting.
The Mona Lisa was first displayed to the public in the 1530s by Francois I, the French King.
He put it up in a semi-public art gallery at Fontainebleau, his favorite chateau.
Mona Lisa’s best copy could be the one in Madrid’s Museo del Prado. Art experts believe it was painted simultaneously as the original and possibly by Leonardo Da Vinci’s gay lover, Gian Giacomo Caprotti.
Conservators say that Leonardo and the Mona Lisa replica painter made precisely the same changes simultaneously, using the latest technologies that allow one to see the different layers of paint.
They believe the two paintings were painted side by side in the same studio, maybe a few feet from each other.
Some tourists visit the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre Museum on the same day. If you also plan to do the same, follow the links for directions:
– From Eiffel Tower to the Louvre Museum
– From Louvre Museum to Eiffel Tower
Recommended Reading:
1. Interesting Louvre Museum facts
2. Fun read: When Louvre statues talk back
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