Early autumn is traditionally rich in exhibitions in France. That's the case this year, with exhibitions showcasing major international artists, starting with John Singer Sargent, whose retrospective is eagerly awaited at the Musée d'Orsay. This great American painter, who trained mainly in France at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, is on show alongside other temporary exhibitions by international and French artists, which are also making their comeback.

From the major Sargent retrospective to other types of exhibitions by international artists, not forgetting the great French painters, this cultural season has plenty to offer.

" Dazzling Paris ". This is the subtitle of the comprehensive exhibition that the Musée d'Orsay is devoting this autumn to John Singer Sargent, an American painter born in Italy and who died in London, adulated in the United States and celebrated in the United Kingdom, but still relatively unknown in France... And yet it was in Paris that he spent all his formative years, making him a prestigious French alumni.

As the museum points out, this retrospective "explores the most decisive period in the American painter's career". Bringing together over 90 works, the exhibition traces the artist's rise in the capital. Arriving in Paris in 1874 at the age of eighteen to study with Carolus-Duran, one of the most famous French portrait painters of the early twentieth century, the painter attended the Ecole des Beaux-arts de Paris. After passing the entrance exam, he chose to join Carolus-Duran's class. He spent four years at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, perfecting his skills in anatomy and perspective. After his first exhibition in Paris in 1877, Sargent befriended the Impressionists, notably Edgar Degas and Claude Monet.

His stay in France lasted until the mid-1880s. At the age of thirty, John Singer Sargent moved to London after the scandal caused by his masterpiece Madame X, a portrait of a banker's wife considered a little too naked for the time... But it was during this Parisian decade that he produced, according to the Musée d'Orsay, "his greatest masterpieces, distinguished by his inventiveness and daring".

Rendezvous at the Musée d'Orsay, from September 23, 2025 to January 11, 2026 (free admission for under-26s resident in the European Union).

In addition to John Singer Sargent, other international artists are also featured this year:

• the Orson Welles exhibition at the Cinémathèque, from October 8, 2025 to January 11, 2026 (reduced rate for students). Entitled " My name is Orson Welles ", this exhibition showcases the life and work of the great American filmmaker. According to the Cinémathèque, "exhibiting Orson Welles is tantamount to unfolding in space the meanderings of a life immediately placed under the sign of the exceptional". An exception made up of a retrospective of his films (including the brilliant Citizen Kane, but also other lesser-known works) and documents that provide a better understanding of this filmmaker who is "a multitude" in his own right.
• Gerard Richter, contemporary German painter, at the Fondation Vuitton from October 17, 2025 to March 2, 2026 (reduced rate for students). Following on from monographic exhibitions devoted to major figures in the art of the XXᵉ and XXIᵉ centuries (such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, Mark Rothko and David Hockney), the Fondation "dedicates the whole of its spaces to Gerhard Richter, considered one of the most important artists of his generation and enjoying international recognition". A retrospective "unprecedented in its scope and temporality, bringing together 270 works from 1962 to 2024", stresses the Foundation.
• General Exhibition of the Fondation Cartier collection from October 25, 2025 to August 23, 2026 (reduced rate for students). To celebrate its new location on the Place du Palais Royal, just a stone's throw from the Louvre Museum, the Fondation Cartier has decided not to go for half-measures by exhibiting its entire collection! " Exposition Générale " retraces forty years of contemporary art at the Fondation Cartier "from a collection shaped by its programming". By "reactivating the architectural heritage of the Fondation Cartier's new venue and its openness to the city, it sketches out an alternative encyclopedia of contemporary art". Over 600 artists, many of them international, will be exhibited.

What about French painters? They are not forgotten, however, with two major exhibitions this year devoted to two giants of pictorial art. Classics to discover or rediscover:

• the Jacques-Louis David exhibition at the Musée du Louvre, from October 15, 2025 to January 26, 2026 (free admission for under-26s residing in the European Union). As indicated by Le Louvre, the world's largest museum, this unique retrospective of Jacques-Louis David (1748-1825), organized to mark the bicentenary of the painter's death, features an exhibition devoted to his entire career. " Only the Louvre is in a position to take up such a challenge, as it holds the world's most important collection of paintings and drawings by this major French artist". The 2025 exhibition, which brings together one hundred works, presents a synthesis for understanding "David's rich artistic, political and social career". According to the museum, Jacques-Louis David, a monument of painting, "has certainly left his mark on our collective visual memory, for it is still today, through the indelible and distorting filter of his paintings, that we imagine the great hours of the French Revolution".
• Georges de La Tour exhibition at the Musée Jacquemart-André, from September 11, 2025 to January 25, 2026 (reduced rate for students). Entitled " Entre ombre et lumière ", this retrospective showcases works by the painter Georges de La Tour (1593-1652), "known for his intimate scenes and intense chiaroscuro". Over 30 of the artist's 40 or so known masterpieces are on show. One of the first retrospectives in France, this exhibition represents "a unique opportunity to gain access to the work of an artist whose output was limited and rarely exhibited".

• Autumn 2025 exhibitions
• Back-to-school 2025 exhibitions