Figure of Samuel F. B. Morse​​

Samuel F. B. Morse was a respected painter when he set sail from New York for Europe in 1829 to visit the princely picture galleries. As Morse took in the glories of the Louvre Museum in Paris, he recognized it as a model for the United States. The Louvre had been a royal palace but now it was a national museum displaying the royal treasures, open free to all, artists and art admirers alike. Morse had the idea to create the Louvre in miniature and transport it back to his country so that it could be viewed by students who lacked appropriate models for learning the art of painting and shared with all his countrymen, who still had few opportunities to see great art. Morse has shown himself in the role of teacher here, at the very center of the scene, offering instruction to a young woman student who is copying one of the masterpieces before her.

Morse hoped to attract large audiences of Americans to the exhibition of his painting of the Louvre after he completed it in 1833, but he had little success. Yet, his work on Gallery of the Louvre played a part in inspiring him to find other means to capture images and to transmit information across the oceans. Eventually he abandoned painting, as his experiments with the electromagnetic telegraph consumed him and his fascination with the new medium of photography led him to pursue another art form.​​​​