Based on one of the largest and important Hermitage collections, the exhibition features the paintings by the foremost artists and represents various artistic movements inthe French art of the 15th -18th centuries (rooms 272-297).

The art of the second half of the 15th - early 17th centuries is represented by canvases of artists Pierre Dumonstier, Jacques Bellange and others (rooms 272-275), Limoges enamels (room 274), ceramics produced at St Porcheres and the celebrated “rustic pottery”, for which Bernard Palissy was famous(room 273). The exhibition introduces the visitor to the works of 17th-century most renowned artists including Simon Vouet, who was the first painter to King Louis XIII, his disciple Eustache Le Sueur, Le Nain brothers, Sebastien Bourdon and others (rooms 275 -276).

There are 12 paintings by Nicolas Poussin, the leading master of Classicism in 17th -сentury French painting (room 279). A separate room features the paintings by the landscape painter Claude Gellee (or Le Lorrain), the follower of Nicolas Poussin (room 280). The exhibition illustrating 18th-century French school of painting is remarkable for the works by Antoine Watteau, Francois Boucher, Jean Simeon Chardin, Jean-Honore Fragonard and Hubert Robert (rooms 283-288). The sculptural works by Maurice Falconet and Jean- Antoine Houdon stand out above all the rest.