Most fun for the adults: Learning about the process used to create this masterpiece.

Most fun for the kids: Trying to pick out famous painting from all the works in the painting of the gallery.

Best ages for this attraction: 8+

Price per tickets: Free, $5 suggested donation

This painting is magnificent, as is the process the artist went through in creating is. The Gallery of the Louvre by Samuel F.B. Morse, on display from March 8, 2003 through January 11, 2004, is a painting of a gallery in the Louvre. The painting itself is of an enormous size, talking up an entire wall at the Terra Museum of American Art. It is displayed on the top floor (5th) of the gallery.

When he was a young artist, Morse traveled to Paris to study and copy the works of art on display in the famous Louvre Museum. Hoping to educate the American public about what he saw in Paris, but realizing that not everyone back home would be able to travel all the way to France, Morse decided to bring the museum to them by making a painting of the salon Carre, one of the Louvre's many galleries. But, instead of painting the gallery as it appeared in real life, Morse invented his own special exhibition by selecting art works from all over the museum that he thought were the most important ones for Americans to know about. Nearly forty paintings and two sculptures can be found in this single painting.

In order to create this masterpiece, Morse went to the Louve time after time and painted replica's of many of the famous works on display there. He kept those replicas in his studio and used them as the basis for the miniature artworks he painted as part of the Gallery of the Louve. The time and effort involved is insurmountable.

Morse's painting is much more than just a collection of important art. Its real story can be discovered in the action of the ten people located in the gallery. Many of the figures have been identified as people Morse actually knew, including well-respected American artists and his own art students. In the center of the painting, leaning over to talk to a young womansas she draws, is Morse himself. By placing himself at the heart of the painting, Morse tells us how important he believed his role as an artist and teacher was.

Near a large urn in the left background, three people are engaged in a discussion. The young woman seated in front of her easel is Susan cooper, one of Morse's students and daughter of James Fenimore Cooper, author of The Last of the Mohicans and Morse's close friend. James Cooper and his wife Susan are the two other people in the discussion.

Standing by the threshold between the Salo Carre and th neighboring gallery is a woman in a traditional French country dress holding a little girl's hand. Nearby, a well-dressed man in a tophat in hand gazes at the wonders around him. These people serve to remind us that this is a public areaa in which visitors of all walks of life come together to experience art.