I am not much of an art enthusiast, but it’s practically impossible not to appreciate the classic works on display at the Louvre Museum in Paris. I visited the museum in person many years ago, but only had time to see a few of the most famous works (including the Mona Lisa). This official iPad app now allows me to view and study even more great displays whenever I feel like it.
Here’s the description from the App Store:
Discover the museum and its most beautiful artworks, and stay updated thanks to our new Newsfeed function.
•100 Louvre masterpieces in your pocket. The selection of museum must-sees now features Greek sculptures, paintings by Bosch, Titian, Raphael, Holbein, and Cranach, and a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci
•Over 500 images and details to zoom in on
•A presentation of the palace and its history, with a new introductory video to take you round the Louvre
•New functions for sharing your favorites with your friends, by email and on Facebook
•Regular updates on key events at the museum (exhibitions, publications, etc), and our “Visitor Information” section to help you prepare your visit (getting there, museum maps, opening hours, admission fees…)
Perfect for Louvre fans: via In-App purchase you can buy the most beautiful visuals to assign to your contacts, use as wallpaper and view as a slideshow.
I like many things about this app, including the fact that each work comes with a rather detailed description of its history and content. Navigation is easy, and there are a lot of interesting pieces to look at. But the app does have its problems. One of the biggest is its sheer size. At over 800MB for the initial download, this thing is a beast that takes up way too much space, especially if you only have a 16GB iPad, like I do. Second, the app is slow to open and sometimes crashes, thus leaving me feel disinclined to deal with it at times.
I paid $3.99 for this app 10 days ago, but I see that it is now FREE at the App Store. If you can get it for free and you have room for it, then you should definitely download the Louvre app. If you have to pay $3.99, then you might want to think twice. I’m happy that I have the app, but not too pleased that I paid for something that is now free.
Anyway, I look forward to future updates that will hopefully get this thing streamlined and make it even better!