The reorganisation of the Louvre’s collections after the 1848 revolution reflects a general appropriation by artists and critics of the socialist and republican theories of the July Monarchy. What is to be done with the art of the past in a society that wants to promote social art ? This question, which lingers in the background between 1830 and 1848, cannot do without a reflection regarding museums as institutions and shows the political and philosophical dimensions of any specific museum hanging. Two democratic Republicans thought through the political dimensions of hangings according to schools of painting : Philippe-Auguste Jeanron, director of the National museums from the 28th of February 1848 to the 25th of December 1849, and his comrade in Republicanism, Théophie Thoré, an important journalist and critic during the July Monarchy.