The Must-See Exhibitions to Look Forward to This Fall!

Back to school means back to museums! The ultimate September treat? Boosting your cultural knowledge with a fresh crop of fascinating exhibitions. And this autumn, our favorite museums are once again pulling out all the stops, with a lineup of highly anticipated shows. It’s hard to choose between Mary Cassatt’s Impressionist portraits at the Musée d’Orsay, the treasures of the Fayet Collection at the Fondation Louis Vuitton, 40 years of fashion celebrated at the MAD Paris, the flamboyant Tintoretto at the Musée Jacquemart-André, or Baroque master Zurbarán at the Louvre... Here’s our roundup of the exhibitions you absolutely need to mark in your calendar.

Monet, Cézanne, Caillebotte and Degas have already been the subject of countless exhibitions. But for the first time, the Musée d’Orsay is devoting a major exhibition to Mary Cassatt, a leading figure of the Impressionist movement and one of the few women to make a name for herself in this male-dominated artistic world. Featuring more than 80 paintings, pastels and prints, the exhibition spans the artist’s entire career. We’re particularly fond of her portraits of elegant young women dressed in pink, navigating society from adolescence to motherhood, from tearooms to grand Parisian theatres.

Mary Cassatt: An Independent from October 6 to January 31, 2027 at the Musée d’Orsay, 1 rue de la Légion d'Honneur, Paris 7th

© Museum of Fine Arts, Boston / National Gallery of Art, Washington

Have you ever heard of Gustave Fayet? This little-known name actually belongs to one of the great champions of modern art. Gustave Fayet was a close friend of Paul Gauguin, and in addition to collecting works by the early avant-garde artists of his time, he was also a painter himself. So head to the Louis Vuitton Foundation to discover the fantastic exhibition “Gustave Fayet, Collector - Creator. Icons of Modern Art”, bringing together more than 250 works from his collection, including pieces by Gauguin, Van Gogh, Renoir and even Matisse, as well as more than 300 works by Fayet himself. Most of these have never been shown to the public and have been restored especially for the occasion.

“Gustave Fayet, Collector, from October 9 to March 8, 2027 at the Louis Vuitton Foundation, 8 Av. du Mahatma Gandhi, Paris 16th.

Starting September 30, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs celebrates 40 years since the creation of its Fashion Museum with Look! 40 Years of Fashion at the Museum. Among 57 silhouettes, sketches, embroidery, patterns and fashion archives, the exhibition reveals clothing as a work of art, from its conception to its presentation on the runway. Visitors will also discover a retrospective of the museum’s greatest exhibitions since 1986, including Christian Dior, Designer of Dreams, Shocking! The Surreal Worlds of Elsa Schiaparelli and many more…

Look! 40 Years of Fashion at the Museum, from September 30, 2026 to April 4, 2027 at MAD, 107 rue de Rivoli, Paris 1st

© Les Arts Décoratifs / Jean Tholance

Although he is not as well known as his contemporaries Botticelli or Caravaggio, Jacopo Robusti, nicknamed “Tintoretto” (after his father’s profession as a dyer), remains an emblematic figure of the Italian Renaissance. Tintoretto was undoubtedly one of the Venetian painters who brought great honor to the art of the Cinquecento, with bold works that were as admired as they were debated. They can be discovered from September 11 at the Jacquemart-André Museum. Around forty paintings reveal daring compositions, dizzying perspectives, spectacular lighting effects and the vibrancy of his brushwork – the famous prestezza.

Eternal Tintoretto, from September 11 to January 24, 2027 at the Jacquemart-André Museum, 158 boulevard Haussmann, Paris 8th

© Lyon MBA - Photo Martial Couderette / Musei Civici di Vicenza - Museo Civico di Palazzo Chiericati

Zurbarán arrives at the Louvre, and it’s well worth the trip. A major figure of the Spanish Golden Age alongside Velázquez and Murillo, Francisco de Zurbarán fascinates with his spectacular use of color and highly distinctive style: sculptural volumes, dramatic lighting, striking details… Through a selection of masterpieces organized into seven sections, the exhibition reveals the painter’s many bold choices, from his most iconic compositions to his most unexpected artistic decisions. The exhibition plays with chronology to create dialogues between the works and offer a fresh perspective on the long career of this Spanish master. An intense, elegant and surprisingly modern exhibition.

Zurbarán, from October 7 to January 25, 2027 at the Louvre, 8 rue Sainte-Anne, Paris 1st.
© Allen Phillips, Wadsworth Atheneum / GrandPalaisRmn (musée du Louvre) - Stéphane Maréchalle

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