Category: Art and Design

Palais Galleira

Palais Galliera Musée de la Mode de la Ville de Paris
10, Avenue Pierre Ier de Serbie 75116 Paris

 

18th-Century Dress Department

This is one of the world’s leading collections of eighteenth-century dresses. Home to some 1,600 items, it comprises men’s and women’s garments dating from the late 17th century to the year 1800, together with children’s wear and theatre costumes; these are an interesting reflection of both the fashions and the textile industry of the time.

The 900-plus male items represent more than half the department’s holdings, with such rare and elaborate pieces as a 1670s jerkin and court clothes of silver brocade or velvet embroidered with gilded silver thread – not to mention 350 waistcoats, whose quantity reflects an Ancien Régime fashion craze. The women’s collection includes a host of dresses à la française and à l’anglaise, as well as caracos and bodices. There are reminders of France’s royal past, too: two suits and a chemise worn by the Dauphin, the future Louis XVII, together with a bodice said to have belonged to Marie Antoinette. They are shown here both for their historical interest and as indicators of the fashions of the period.

The exuberance of the early 18th century can be seen in the men’s long basques, cut from dark fabrics with thick embroidery, and for women, large-patterned dresses with pleated backs and the skirts puffed out with hoops. Around 1750–1755 the dresses were made of silk, with long, sinuous trimmings testifying to the period’s rococo taste. During the reign of Louis XVI the male silhouette slimmed down and clothes were made of velvet or taffeta, either plain or with little patterns of delicate floral embroidery. Waistcoats were light-coloured and picturesquely embroidered. The feminine wardrobe became more varied, the dress à la française with its wide, pleated back alternating with the dress à l’anglaise, whose narrow waist highlighted feminine curves. At the end of the century close-fitting coats, straight waistcoats and tunic dresses of cotton muslin or lawn signalled a new relationship with the body: the natural replaced the artificial.

Fashion in 18th-century Paris saw many radical changes. The varied range was illustrated in published periodicals that conveyed the message with eye-catching engravings, while new materials and textiles – printed cottons, white cotton muslin, silk or silk/wool jersey – reflected technical advances and guaranteed the wearer unheard-of comfort and an aura of modernity. One iconic figure stands out in this century when modern fashion was born: the marchande de mode, or dressmaker/milliner, whose most famous representative was Rose Bertin, Marie-Antoinette’s ‘minister of fashion’.  Bertin captured royal and princely clienteles not only at Versailles, but in other European courts as well. With her arrival, the marchande de mode no longer settled merely for decorating dresses and selling lace, feathers, gauze, hats and fans; she imposed on her customers the need for a knowledgeable guide in the supreme realm of fashion.

Les Tuilerie Jardins

 

 

 

 

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The Tuileries Garden (French: Jardin des Tuileries) is a public garden located between the Louvre Museum and the Place de la Concorde in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. Created by Catherine de’ Medici as the garden of the Tuileries Palace in 1564, it was eventually opened to the public in 1667 and became a public park after the French Revolution. In the 19th and 20th centuries, it was a place where Parisians celebrated, met, strolled, and relaxed.[1]

Contents (Wikipedia)

History and development

Garden of Catherine de’ Medici

Th;;3t ng by Jacques I Androuet du Cerceau. (The engraving also includes a plan for the expansion of the palace which was never executed.)

In July 1559, after the accidental death of her husband, Henry II, Queen Catherine de’ Medici decided to leave her residence of the Hôtel des Tournelles, at the eastern part of Paris, near the Bastille. Together with her son, the new king of France François II, her other children and the royal court, she moved to the Louvre Palace. Five years later, in 1664, she commissioned the construction of a new palace just beyond the wall of Charles V, not far from the Louvre, from which it would be separated by a neighborhood of private hotels, churches, convents, and the Hospice des Quinze-Vingts near the Porte Saint-Honoré.

For that purpose, Catherine had bought land west of Paris, on the other side of the portion of the wall of Charles V situated between the Tour du Bois and the 14th century Porte Saint-Honoré. It was bordered on the south by the Seine, and on the north by the faubourg Saint-Honoré, a road in the countryside continuing the rue Saint-Honoré. Since the 13th century this area had been occupied by tile-making fabrics called tuileries (from the French tuile, meaning “tile”).

Catherine further commissioned a landscape architect from Florence, Bernard de Carnesse, to create an Italian Renaissance garden, with fountains, a labyrinth, a grotto, and decorated with faience images of plants and animals, made by Bernard Palissy, whom Catherine had tasked to discover the secret of Chinese porcelain.

The Tuileries Garden in 1615, where the Grand Basin is now located. The covered promenade can be seen, and the riding school established by Catherine.

The garden of Catherine de’ Medici was an enclosed space five hundred metres long and three hundred metres wide, separated from the new palace by a lane. It was divided into rectangular compartments by six alleys, and the sections were planted with lawns, flower beds, and small clusters of five trees, called quinconces; and, more practically, with kitchen gardens and vineyards.[2]

The Tuileries garden was the largest and most beautiful garden in Paris at the time. Catherine used it for lavish royal festivities honoring ambassadors from Queen Elizabeth I of England, and the marriage of her daughter, Marguerite de Valois, to Henri III of Navarre, better known as Henry IV, King of France and of Navarre.[3]

Garden of Henry IV

King Henry III was forced to flee Paris in 1588, and the gardens fell into disrepair. His successor, Henry IV (1589–1610), and his gardener, Claude Mollet, restored the gardens, built a covered promenade the length of the garden, and a parallel alley planted with mulberry trees where he hoped to cultivate silkworms and start a silk industry in France. He also built a rectangular ornamental lake of 65 metres by 45 metres with a fountain supplied with water by the new pump called La Samaritaine, which had been built in 1608 on the Pont Neuf. The area between the palace and the former moat of Charles V was turned into the “New Garden” (Jardin Neuf) with a large fountain in the center. Though Henry IV never lived in the Tuilieries Palace, which was continually under reconstruction, he did use the gardens for relaxation and exercise.

Garden of Louis XIII

The Tuileries Garden in 1652 with the Parterre de Mademoiselle east of the Palace

In 1610, at the death of his father, Louis XIII became the new owner of the Tuileries Gardens at the age of nine. It became his enormous playground – he used it for hunting, and he kept a menagerie of animals. On the north side of the gardens, Marie de’ Medici established a riding school, stables, and a covered manege for exercising horses.

When the king and court were absent from Paris, the gardens were turned into a pleasure spot for the nobility. In 1630 a former rabbit warren and kennel at the west rampart of the garden were made into a flower-lined promenade and cabaret. The daughter of Gaston d’Orléans and the niece of Louis XIII, known as La Grande Mademoiselle, held a sort of court in the cabaret, and the “New Garden” of Henry IV (the present-day Carousel) became known as the “Parterre de Mademoiselle.” In 1652, “La Grande Mademoiselle” was expelled from the chateau and garden for having supported an uprising, the Fronde, against her cousin, the young Louis XIV.[4]

Garden of Louis XIV and Le Nôtre

Tuileries Garden of Le Nôtre in the 17th century, looking west toward the future Champs Élysées, engraving by Perelle

Le Nôtre’s Tuileries Garden plan, engraving by Israël Silvestre (1671)

The statue of Renommée, or the fame of the king, riding the horse Pegasus, (1699) by Antoine Coysevox (1640–1720) at the west entrance of the Garden. Originally located on Louis XIV’s estate at Marly, it was moved to the Tuileries in 1719

The new king quickly imposed his own sense of order on the Tuileries Gardens. His architects, Louis Le Vau and François d’Orbay, finally finished the Tuileries Palace, making a proper royal residence. In 1662, to celebrate the birth of his first child, Louis XIV held a vast pageant of mounted courtiers in the New Garden, which had been enlarged by filling in Charles V’s moat and had been turned into a parade ground. Thereafter the square was known as the Place du Carrousel.[5]

In 1664, Colbert, the king’s superintendent of buildings, commissioned the landscape architect André Le Nôtre, to redesign the entire garden. Le Nôtre was the grandson of Pierre Le Nôtre, one of Catherine de’ Medici’s gardeners, and his father Jean had also been a gardener at the Tuileries. He immediately began transforming the Tuileries into a formal garden à la française, a style he had first developed at Vaux-le-Vicomte and perfected at Versailles, based on symmetry, order and long perspectives.

Le Nôtre’s gardens were designed to be seen from above, from a building or terrace. He eliminated the street which separated the palace and the garden, and replaced it with a terrace looking down upon flowerbeds bordered by low boxwood hedges and filled with designs of flowers. In the centre of the flowerbeds he placed three ornamental lakes with fountains. In front of the centre of the first fountain he laid out the Grande Allée, which extended 350 metres. He built two other alleys, lined with chestnut trees, on either side. He crossed these three main alleys with small lanes, to create compartments planted with diverse trees, shrubs and flowers.

On the south side of the park, next to the Seine, he built a long terrace called the Terrasse du bord-de-l’eau, planted with trees, with a view of the river He built a second terrace on the north side, overlooking the garden, called the Terrasse des Feuillants.

On the west side of the garden, beside the present-day Place de la Concorde, he built two ramps in a horseshoe shape and two terraces overlooking an octagonal lake 60 m (200 ft) in diameter with a fountain in the centre. These terraces frame the western entrance of the garden, and provide another viewpoint to see the garden from above.

Le Nôtre wanted his grand perspective from the palace to the western end of the garden to continue outside the garden. In 1667, he made plans for an avenue with two rows of trees on either side, which would have continued west to the present Rond-Point des Champs Élysées.[6]

Le Nôtre and his hundreds of masons, gardeners and earth-movers worked on the gardens from 1666 to 1672. In 1682, however, the king, furious with the Parisians for resisting his authority, abandoned Paris and moved to Versailles.

In 1667, at the request of the famous author of Sleeping Beauty and other fairy tales, Charles Perrault, the Tuileries Garden was opened to the public, with the exception of beggars, “lackeys” and soldiers.[7] It was the first royal garden to be open to the public.

In the 18th century

After the death of Louis XIV, the five-year-old Louis XV became owner of the Tuileries Garden. The garden, abandoned for nearly forty years, was put back in order. In 1719, two large equestrian statuary groups, La Renommée and Mercure, by the sculptor Antoine Coysevox, were brought from the king’s residence at Marly and placed at the west entrance of the garden. Other statues by Nicolas and Guillaume Coustou, Corneille an Clève, Sebastien Slodz, Thomas Regnaudin and Coysevox were placed along the Grande Allée.[8] A swing bridge was placed at the west end over the moat, to make access to the garden easier. The creation of the place Louis XV (now Place de la Concorde) created a grand vestibule to the garden.

Certain holidays, such as August 25, the feast day of Saint Louis, were celebrated with concerts and fireworks in the park. A famous early balloon ascent was made from the garden on December 1, 1783 by Jacques Alexandre César Charles and Nicolas Louis Robert. Small food stands were placed in the park, and chairs could be rented for a small fee.[9] Public toilets were added in 1780.[10]

During the French revolution

The Tuileries, renamed the “Jardin National” during the French Revolution- the Festival of the Supreme Being (1794)

On October 6, 1789, as the French Revolution began, King Louis XVI was brought against his will to the Tuileries Palace. The garden was closed to the public except in the afternoon. Queen Marie Antoinette and the Dauphin were given a part of the garden for her private use, first at the west end of the Promenade Bord d’eaux, then at the edge of the Place Louis XV.

After the king’s failed attempt to escape France, the surveillance of the family was increased. The royal family was allowed to walk in the park on the evening of September 18, 1791, during the festival organized to celebrate the new French Constitution, when the alleys of the park were illuminated with pyramids and rows of lanterns.[11] On August 10, 1792, a mob stormed the Palace, and the king’s Swiss guards were chased through the gardens and massacred. After the king’s removal from power and execution, the Tuileries became the National Garden (Jardin National) of the new French Republic. In 1794 the new government assigned the renewal of the gardens to the painter Jacques-Louis David, and to his brother in law, the architect August Cheval de Saint-Hubert. They conceived a garden decorated with Roman porticos, monumental porches, columns, and other classical decoration. The project of David and Saint-Hubert was never completed. All that remains today are the two exedres, semicircular low walls crowned with statues by the two ponds in the centre of the garden.[12]

While David’s project was not finished, large numbers of statues from royal residences were brought to the gardens for display. The garden was also used for revolutionary holidays and festivals. On June 8, 1794, a ceremony in honor of the Cult of the Supreme Being was organized in the Tuileries by Robespierre, with sets and costumes designed by Jacques-Louis David. After a hymn written for the occasion, Robespierre set fire to mannequins representing Atheism, Ambition, Egoism and False Simplicity, revealing a statue of Wisdom.[13]

In the 19th century

Édouard Manet, La Musique aux Tuileries, 1862

Camille Pissarro, The Garden of the Tuileries on a Spring Morning, 1899

Around 1900

In the 19th century, the Tuileries Garden was the place where ordinary Parisians went to relax, meet, stroll, enjoy the fresh air and greenery, and be entertained.

Napoleon Bonaparte, about to become Emperor, moved into the Tuileries Palace on February 19, 1800, and began making improvements to suit an imperial residence. A new street was created between the Louvre and the Place du Carrousel, a fence closed the courtyard, and he built a small triumphal arch, modeled after the arch of Septimius Severus in Rome, in the middle of the Place du Carrousel, as the ceremonial entrance to his palace.

In 1801 Napoleon ordered the construction of a new street along the northern edge of the Tuileries, through space that had been occupied by the riding school and stables built by Marie de’ Medici, and the private gardens of aristocrats and convents and religious orders that had been closed during the Revolution. This new street also took part of the Terrasse des Feuillants, which had been occupied by cafés and restaurants. The new street, lined with arcades on the north side, was named the rue de Rivoli, after Napoleon’s victory in 1797.

Napoleon made few changes to the interior of the garden. He continued to use the garden for military parades and to celebrate special events, including the passage of his own wedding procession on April 2, 1810, when he married the Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria.

After the fall of Napoleon, the garden briefly became the encampment of the occupying Austrian and Russian soldiers. The monarchy was restored, and the new King, Charles X, renewed an old tradition and celebrated the feast day of Saint Charles in the garden.

In 1830, after a brief revolution, the new king, Louis-Philippe, became owner of the Tuileries. He wanted a private garden within the Tuileries, so a section of the garden in front of the palace was separated by a fence from the rest of the Tuileries. A small moat, flower beds and eight new statues by sculptors of the period decorated the new private garden.

In 1852, following another revolution and the shortlived Second Republic, a new Emperor, Louis Napoleon, became owner of the garden. He enlarged his private reserve within the garden further to the west as far as the north–south alley that crossed the large round basin, so that included the two small round basins. He decorated his new garden with beds of exotic plants and flowers, and new statues. In 1859, he made the Terrasse du bord-de-l’eau into a playground for his son, the Prince Imperial. He also constructed twin pavilions, the Jeu de paume and the Orangerie, at the west end of the garden, and built a new stone balustrade at the west entrance. When The Emperor was not in Paris, usually from May to November, the entire garden, including his private garden and the playground, were open to the public.

In 1870, Emperor Louis Napoleon was defeated and captured by the Prussians, and Paris was the scene of the uprising of the Paris Commune. A red flag flew over the Palace, and it could be visited for fifty centimes. When the army arrived and fought to recapture the city, the Communards deliberately burned the Tuileries Palace, and tried to burn the Louvre as well. The ruins were not torn down until 1883. The empty site of the palace, between the two pavilions of the Louvre, became part of the garden.

In the 20th century

Jardin des Tuileries in winter

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, the Tuilieries garden was filled with entertainments for the public; acrobats, puppet theatres, lemonade stands, small boats on the lakes, donkey rides, and stands selling toys. At the 1900 Summer Olympics, the Gardens hosted the fencing events.[14] The peace in the garden was interrupted by the First World War in 1914; the statues were surrounded by sandbags, and in 1918 two German long-range artillery shells landed in the garden.

In the years between the two World Wars, the Jeu de paume tennis court was turned into a gallery, and its western part was used to display the Water Lilies series of paintings by Claude Monet. The Orangerie became an art gallery for contemporary western art.

During World War II, the Jeu de paume was used by the Germans as a warehouse for art they had stolen or confiscated.

The liberation of Paris in 1944 saw considerable fighting in the garden. Monet’s paintings Water Lilies were seriously damaged during the battle.[15]

Until the 1960s, almost all the sculpture in the garden dated from the 18th or 19th century. In 1964–65, André Malraux, the Minister of Culture for President Charles de Gaulle, removed the 19th century statues which surrounded the Place du Carrousel and replaced them with contemporary sculptures by Aristide Maillol.

In 1994, as part of the Grand Louvre project launched by President François Mitterrand, the Belgian landscape architect Jacques Wirtz remade the garden of the Carrousel, adding labyrinths and a fan of low hedges radiating from the triumphal arch in the square.

In 1998, under President Jacques Chirac, works of modern sculpture by Jean Dubuffet, Henri Laurens, Étienne Martin, Henry Moore, Germaine Richier, Auguste Rodin and David Smith were placed in the garden. In 2000, the works of living artists were added; these included works by Magdalena Abakanowicz, Louise Bourgeois, Tony Cragg, Roy Lichtenstein, François Morrellet, Giuseppe Penone, Anne Rochette and Lawrence Weiner. Another ensemble of three works by Daniel Dezeuze, Erik Dietman and Eugène Dodeigne, called Prière Toucher (Eng: Please Touch), was added at the same time.[16]

In the 21st century

Café de Pomone, Jardin des Tuileries, in springtime

At the beginning of the 21st century, French landscape architects Pascal Cribier and Louis Benech have been working to restore some of the early features of the André Le Nôtre garden.[17]

Areas of special interest

Jardin du Carrousel

Arc de triomphe du Carrousel

Also known as the Place du Carrousel, this part of the garden used to be enclosed by the two wings of the Louvre and by the Tuileries Palace. In the 18th century it was used as a parade ground for cavalry and other festivities. The central feature is the Arc de triomphe du Carrousel, built to celebrate the victories of Napoleon, with bas-relief sculptures of his battles by Jean Joseph Espercieux. The garden was remade in 1995 to showcase a collection of 21 statues by Aristide Maillol, which had been put in the Tuileries in 1964.

Terrasse

The elevated terrace between the Carrousel and the rest of the garden used to be at the front of the Tuileries Palace. After the Palace was burned in 1870, it was made into a road, which was put underground in 1877. The terrace is decorated by two large vases which used to be in the gardens of Versailles, and two statues by Aristide Maillol; the Monument to Cézanne on the north and the Monument aux morts de Port Vendres on the south.

Moat of Charles V

Two stairways descend from the Terrasse to the moat (fr:fossés) named for Charles V of France, who rebuilt the Louvre in the 14th century. It was part of the old fortifications which originally surrounded the palace. On the west side are traces left by the fighting during the unsuccessful siege of Paris by Henry IV of France in 1590 during the French Wars of Religion. Since 1994 the moat has been decorated with statues from the facade of the old Tuileries Palace and with bas-reliefs made in the 19th century during the Restoration of the French monarchy which were meant to replace the Napoleonic bas-reliefs on the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel, but were never put in place.[18]

Grand Carré of the Tuileries

Tuileries Garden panorama

The Grand Carré (Large Square) is the eastern, open part of the Tuilieries garden, which still follows the formal plan of the Garden à la française created by André Le Nôtre in the 17th century.

The eastern part of the Grand Carré, surrounding the round pond, was the private garden of the king under Louis Philippe and Napoleon III, separated from the rest of the Tuileries by a fence.

Most of the statues in the Grand Carré were put in place in the 19th century.

  • Nymphe (1866) and Diane Chasseresse (Diana the Huntress) (1869) by Louis Auguste Lévêque, which mark the beginning of the central allée which runs east-west through the park.
  • Tigre terrassant un crocodile (Tiger overwhelming a crocodile) (1873) and Tigresse portant un paon à ses petits (Tigress bringing a peacock to her young) (1873), both by Auguste Cain, by the two small round ponds.

The large round pond is surrounded by statues on themes from antiquity, allegory, and ancient mythology. Statues in violent poses alternate with those in serene poses. On the south side, starting from the east entrance of the large round pond, they are:

On the north side, starting at the west entrance to the pond, they are:

Plan of the Jardin des Tuileries

Le Grand Couvert of the Tuileries

The Grand Couvert is the part of the garden covered with trees. The two cafes in the Grand Couvert are named after two famous cafes once located in the garden; the café Very, which had been on the terrace des Feuiillants in the 18th–19th century; and the café Renard, which in the 18th century had been a popular meeting place on the western terrace.

The Grand Couvert also contains the two exedres, low curving walls built to display statues, which survived from the French Revolution. They were built in 1799 by Jean Charles Moreau, part of a larger unfinished project designed by painter Jacques-Louis David in 1794. They are now decorated with plaster casts of moldings on mythological themes from the park of Louis XIV at Marly.

The Grand Couvert contains a number of important works of the 20th century and contemporary sculpture, including:

Orangerie, Jeu de Paume, and West Terrace of the Tuileries

Westernmost portion of the Tuileries Garden

Claude Monet, Les Nymphéas (Water Lilies) 1920–26, oil on canvas, 86.2 × 237 in. (219 × 602 cm) in the Orangerie

The Orangerie (Musée de l’Orangerie), at the west end of the garden close to the Seine, was built in 1852 by the architect Firmin Bourgeois. Since 1927 it has displayed the series Water Lilies by Claude Monet. It also displays the Walter-Guillaume collection of Impressionist painting

On the terrace of the Orangerie are four works of sculpture by Auguste Rodin: Le Baiser (1881–1898); Eve (1881) and La Grande Ombre (1880) and La Meditation avc bras (1881–1905). It also has a modern work, Grand Commandement blanc (1986) by Alain Kirili.

The Jeu de Paume (Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume) was built in 1861 was the architect Viraut, and enlarged in 1878. In 1927 it became an annex of the Luxembourg Palace Museum for the display of contemporary art from outside France. During the German Occupation of World War II, from 1940 to 1944, it was used by the Germans as a depot for storing art they stole or expropriated from Jewish families. From 1947 until 1986, it served as the Musée du Jeu de Paume, which held many important Impressionist works now housed in the Musée d’Orsay. Today, the Jeu de Paume is used for exhibits of modern and contemporary art.

On the terrace in front of the Jeu de Paume is a work of sculpture, Le Bel Costumé (1973) by Jean Dubuffet.

Sculptures

Mercury riding Pegasus, (1701–02) by Antoine Coysevox (1640–1720). Originally at Marly, moved to the Tuileries in 1719 and placed at the west gate of the garden. In 1986 the original of marble was moved to the Louvre and replaced by a copy.

Nymphe by Louis Auguste Lévêque, (1866). In the Grand Carré, at the beginning of the Grand Allée.

Theseus and the Minotaur (1821) by Jules Ramey, in the Grand Carré

The Oath of Spartacus (1871) by Louis-Ernest Barrias (1841–1905)

Auguste Rodin, 1881–1904, L’Ombre (The Shade), bronze

Auguste Rodin, 1881–ca.1899, Éve, bronze

Auguste Rodin, 1881–ca.1905, Méditation avec bras, bronze

Le Baiser (The Kiss) by Auguste Rodin, (1934 cast of the marble original), West Terrace

  • Bibliography
  • Allain, Yves-Marie and Janine Christiany, L’art des jardins en Europe, Citadelles et Mazenod, Paris, 2006.
  • Hazlehurst, F. Hamilton, Gardens of Illusion: The Genius of André Le Nostre, Vanderbilt University Press, 1980. (ISBN 9780826512093)
  • Impelluso, Lucia, Jardins, potagers et labyrinthes, Hazan, Paris, 2007.
  • Jacquin, Emmanuel, Les Tuileries, Du Louvre à la Concorde, Editions du Patrimoine, Centres des Monuments Nationaux, Paris. (ISBN 978-2-85822-296-4)
  • Jarrassé, Dominique, Grammaire des Jardins Parisiens, Parigramme, Paris, 2007. (ISBN 978-2-84096-476-6)
  • Prevot, Philippe, Histoire des jardins, Editions Sud Ouest, 2006.
  • Wenzler, Claude, Architecture du jardin, Editions Ouest-France, 2003.
  • See also
  • History of Parks and Gardens of Paris
  • Sources and citations
  1. Emmanuel Jacquin, Les Tuileries Du Louvre à la Concorde.
  2. Jacquin, Les Tuileries — Du Louvre à la Concorde, p. 4.
  3. Jacquin, p. 6
  4. Jacquin, p. 10
  5. Jacquin p. 15
  6. Jarrassé, Grammaire des Jardins Parisiens, p. 51.
  7. Jarrassé, p. 47
  8. The statues in the park now are copies; the originals are in the Louvre.
  9. Chairs were still being rented for a small sum until 1970.
  10. Jacquin, p. 24.
  11. Jacquin, p. 25
  12. The two exedres have been restored, with plaster copies of the original statues.
  13. Jacquin, p. 26–27
  14. 1900 Summer Olympics official report. p. 16. Accessed 14 November 2010. (in French)
  15. Jacquin, p. 41
  16. Jacquin, p. 42–43
  17. Jarrassé, p. 49
  18. Jacquin, p. 46 

Giverny

 

 

 

The village of Giverny is a small village located north of France. The town of Giverny is located in the department of Eure of the french region Haute-Normandie in the township of Écos part of the district of Les Andelys.

 

 

 

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Marmottan Monet Museum

 

 

The Marmottan Monet Museum, former hunting lodge of Christophe Edmond Kellermann, Duke of Valmy, was acquired in 1882 by Jules Marmottan. His son Paul made it his home and enlarged it with a hunting lodge designed to house his collection of First Empire art and paintings.

At his death, in 1932, he bequeathed to the Academy of Fine Arts all his collections as well as his mansion which became the museum Marmottan in 1934 and the library of Boulogne rich in historical documents.

In 1957, the Marmottan Monet Museum received as a donation the collection of Victorine Donop de Monchy, inherited from his father Dr. Georges de Bellio, doctor of Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Sisley and Renoir who was one of the first lovers of painting impressionist.

Michel Monet, second son of the painter, bequeathed in 1966 to the Academy of Fine Arts his Giverny property and his collection of paintings inherited from his father for the Marmottan Museum. It provides the Museum with the world’s largest collection of Claude Monet’s works. The academic and curator architect of the Jacques Carlu Museum then built a room inspired by the large decorations of the Orangerie des Tuileries to receive the collection.

The works brought together by Henri Duhem and his wife Mary Sergeant came to complete this fund in 1987 thanks to the generosity of their daughter Nelly Duhem. Painter and companion in arms of the post-impressionists, Henri Duhem was also a passionate collector gathering the works of his contemporaries.

In 1996, the Denis and Annie Rouart Foundation was created within the Marmottan Monet Museum in accordance with the wish of its benefactor. The Museum then enriched its collections with prestigious works by Berthe Morisot, Edouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Auguste Renoir and Henri Rouart.

Daniel Wildenstein offered his father’s exceptional collection of illuminations at the Marmottan Museum in 1980.

Since then, many other legacies, just as important, have come to complete the museum’s collections. In fact, the generosity of many patrons has also contributed to the splendor of the collections now on display in the Marmottan Monet Museum.

Housed in the former hunting lodge of the Duke of Valmy, a lavish 19th-century mansion in Paris’ 16th arrondissement, the Musée Marmottan, or the Marmottan Monet museum, is as impressive from the outside as it is inside. Founded around the vast Napoleonic era art collection bequeathed to the Academy of Fine Arts by Jules Marmottan, the museum opened its doors back in 1934 and has since amassed an incredible compilation of works by some of the world’s finest artists.

The museum’s permanent galleries feature paintings by Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas and Édouard Manet, alongside celebrated works by Camille Pissarro, Paul Gauguin and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and a host of other renowned names. Most unique are a collection of illuminated medieval manuscripts and a showcase of Flemish primitive paintings. Even the décor is a work of art, with plush furnishings and precious antiques dotted throughout the elegant salons and stunning views over the neighboring Jardin de Ranelagh, or Ranelagh Gardens.

The museum is most acclaimed for housing the world’s largest collection of works by iconic French impressionist, Claude Monet. Donated by the legendary artist’s son, Michel Monet, after his death in 1966, the Monet collection is displayed in a specially designed basement gallery, elaborately decorated in homage to the Orangerie des Tuileries gallery. Key pieces include the 1892-96 ‘Cathédrale de Rouen’ series, a striking depiction of the London Houses of Parliament and ‘Impression, Soleil Levant’ (Impression, Sunrise), credited for giving name to the Impressionist movement.

 

Marmottan Museum Website

 

Nantes Parks – Parc de la Morinière in mid-Spring

 

 

 

 

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Musée Picasso

 

 


Central staircase.

HISTORY – Translated from Musée Picasso website

The decision to install the “dation Picasso” (works donated in lieu of estate taxes) in the Hôtel Salé was made very quickly, in 1974, just one year following the artist’s death. But in some way the fate of Pablo Picasso’s estate had been pre-planned, in particular by the “acceptance in lieu” mechanism introduced in the late 1960s, made urgent by the artist’s advancing years. With this process, which gave the State permission to acquire the bulk of Picasso’s works, enriched by donations from his heirs, it was important to find a place to preserve and exhibit them. Supported by the artist’s family, Michel Guy, French Secretary of State for Culture, chose the Hôtel Salé, a private mansion at 5 rue de Thorigny in Paris’ 3rd arrondissement, to house Picasso’s collection. Owned by the City of Paris, the building had been awarded the Historic Monument status on 29 October 1968.

 

The Historic Monuments department commenced the restoration programme in 1974. In March 1975, after deliberation, Paris City Council confirmed that the Hôtel Salé would indeed house the Musée National Picasso, a natural choice given that the artist’s work was produced within the walls of large private mansions and other historic buildings, such as the châteaux of Boisgeloup and Antibes and Villa La Californie. The intention was also to create an architectural contrast between the nascent Centre Pompidou, whose foundations were just being laid, and the monographic heritage site the old Hôtel Salé was transforming into, a nearby showcase for 20th century art and a depository for Pablo Picasso’s estate. Picasso’s art was to shine in the multiple exhibition areas dedicated to 20th century art divided between highly-contemporary architecture and patrimonial spaces. A lease of 99 years was agreed in 1981, the City of Paris renting the Hôtel Salé from the State for a token sum provided it carried out the renovation and took care of the building’s upkeep.

 

The property was renovated and refurbished between 1979 and 1985 by the architect Roland Simounet to become a dedicated place to preserve and display art. Following a public design competition that put four architects in the running (Roland Simounet, Carlos Scarpa, Jean Monge and Roland Castro’s GAU Group), Roland Simounet was awarded the contract to install the Musée National Picasso within the Hôtel Salé. A well-recognised and experienced architect, Roland Simounet was born in 1927 in Algeria where he worked until 1964 after a period studying at the École d’architecture du Quai Malaquais in Paris. He worked on temporary settlements, carrying out a study for the shanty town in Algiers on behalf of the International Congress for Modern Architecture in 1953, and building the Djenan el Hassan housing project in 1957. His experience combined the modernist architecture of Le Corbusier with Mediterranean tradition—which had already inspired him, and he became interested in horizontality. The LaM, a modern art museum in Villeneuve d’Ascq (1983), for which he won the public competition in 1973, is a good representation of his approach to arranging architectural blocks in an organised sequence, a model also found in the Museum of Prehistory in Nemours (1981), with its asymmetrical footprint comprising different wings, adapted to the uneven terrain.

 

The Hôtel Salé presented a particular challenge. The project consisted of appropriating the space inside an existing building and respecting the listed parts of the property with its superb stucco and stone décor as seen in the hallway, central staircase, and Salon de Jupiter. Simounet confronted these constraints just like he had done with the bumps in the ground in Nemours: his proposal was the only one submitted to the competition to fit the museum within the confines of the building without the need to extend the property. The modernist box designed by Roland Simounet was superimposed within the monument in a dialectical style as subtle as it was complex, in every dimension.

 

The central staircase, which leads “naturally” to the first floor, was a pivotal component of the project. The exhibition route flowed like a sinusoid carved with nooks and crevices. A ramp provided an alternative means of moving from floor to floor. The gloss paint contrasted with the matt paint to make the walls flow. This work differed from the renovation of the Abbey of Saint-Germain des Prés, for which the interior was structured like a shell inside the building. In the Hôtel Salé, the building retained its spaciousness and its external and internal visibility. Through the variety of ambiences established in each part of the building and the transparency between the original building and exhibition spaces, the museum offered an architectural promenade introducing visitors to a grand 17th-century house at the same time as Picasso’s work. The furnishings were designed by Diego Giacometti.

 

However, due to technical problems, budget cuts and a slew of planning changes, the completed renovation was in many respects different from the initial design supported by Roland Simounet. The ramps and mezzanines had to be reduced. Certain spaces were abandoned, such as the temporary exhibition spaces, originally planned to take up the outbuildings, and the multimedia room for which the outbuildings’ basement was initially designated. The plan to create a building for artist studios and services running along the gardens, on the side of rue du Vieille du Temple, was also rejected, the area instead converted into a large technical facility. These lost spaces made it impossible to display the full magnitude of the collection.

 

The Musée National Picasso was inaugurated in October 1985.

 

Roland Simounet was awarded the Silver T-Square architecture prize for his work on the Hôtel Salé.

INA archives

In partnership with the INA, France’s national audiovisual institute, here is a selection of videos regarding the opening of the museum.
1975 : TF1, 1 pm news programme, 21 January 1975: the Musée Picasso installed in the Hôtel Salé in Paris’ Marais district. To commemorate its renovation, the programme broadcast the long and rich history of this remarkable building. (in French)

1979 : Antenne 2, Zig Zag, 12 December 1979: Maurice Aicardi, President of the Interministerial Commission for the Preservation of National Artistic Heritage, explained the circumstances surrounding the Pablo Picasso “dation” and more generally the principles underlying the law of 31 December 1968 regarding the acceptance in lieu mechanism. Presented from the main staircase at the Hôtel Salé, during its renovation. (in French)

1984 : TF1, the 1 pm news programme, 5 July 1984:the architect Roland Simounet presents, on the site of the Musée Picasso, the main components of the Hôtel Salé’s renovation, illustrated by the technical innovations shown during the course of the news item. (in French)

1985 : Antenne, 2. Midi 2, 23 September 1985: for the occasion of the inauguration of the Musée Picasso, a report on transferring Pablo Picasso’s works from the Palais de Tokyo’s storerooms to the picture rails in the Hôtel Salé. The first images of the works being hung are explained by Dominique Bozo, chief curator at the Musée Picasso. (in French)

The Hôtel Salé

 

The Hôtel Salé is probably, as Bruno Foucart wrote in 1985, “the grandest, most extraordinary, if not the most extravagant, of the grand Parisian houses of the 17th century”. The building has seen many occupants come and go over the centuries. However, paradoxically, before the place was entrusted to the museum, it was rarely “inhabited”, but instead leased out to various private individuals, prestigious hosts and institutions.

 

It was built by salt-tax farmer, Pierre Aubert, around the same time as another ambitious construction was realised—Château de Vaux-le-Vicomte by Nicolas Fouquet. Indeed, Pierre Aubert was a protégé of Fouquet. Aubert made his fortune in the 1630s-1640s by various schemes, including an advantageous marriage and the purchase of successive appointments, eventually becoming an important financier on the Parisian market and advisor and secretary to the King. Joining the salt tax offices, Pierre Aubert collecting taxes on salt as a lump sum in the name of the king, consolidated his standing. His position created a name for the house, which quickly became known as the Hôtel Salé (“salé” meaning “salty” in French).

 

The future owner of Hôtel Salé was therefore a “middle-class gentleman” seeking to assert his recent social advancement. As a site, he chose an area still underdeveloped, and where Henry IV of France wished to encourage construction with the building of the Place Royale. This urban extension of the old Marais (“marsh” in French) bordered the Hôpital Saint-Gervais and its “fields” (cultures) corrupted to “habits” (coutures) worn by the Saint Anastasia nuns. Pierre Aubert, Lord of Fontenay, purchased land covering 3,700 square metres, in the north of Rue de la Perle, for 40 000 pounds from this Order. To design the building, he chose the young unknown architect Jean Boullier de Bourges (or Jean de Boullier), of whom we know little today. He belonged to a local family of stonemasons and his grandfather had already served Pierre de Fontenay’s in-laws, the Chastelain family. Three years later, in the final days of 1659, the work was completed and Pierre Aubert took up his new property. The sculpted décor including the sumptuous main staircase was entrusted to brothers Gaspard and Balthazar Marsy and to Martin Desjardins.

 

The Hôtel Salé is a typical Mazarin building, whose style is marked by a revival of architectural forms, under the influence of new patrons like Pierre Aubert or Nicolas Lambert who a few years earlier had commissioned Louis Le Vau to design his house. The Italian baroque, introduced by Cardinal Mazarin, was in fashion inspiring architects to take new approaches to space, which they combined with François Mansart’s legacy of introducing classicism into Baroque architecture in France. An innovation of the time, the Hôtel Salé comprised two corps de logis, two lines of rooms which extended the building’s surface area.
Its footprint is asymmetrical: the façade giving onto the courtyard is divided in two by a perpendicular wing that separates the main courtyard from the rear courtyard. The courtyard, following a wide curve that energises the façade, reflects the innovations of the time. The façade itself is punctuated by seven open bays to emphasise the central avant-corps on three levels.

 

The classical pediment of the small avant-corps is a nod to Mansart; above it, the immense pediment emblazoned with acanthus, fruit and flower motifs looks towards the Baroque style. The abundance of sculpture (sphinxes and cupids) also suggest the general Baroque character of the façade. The façade overlooking the garden is less ornate.

 

The central staircase is the masterpiece of the house and has just been entirely restored to its original condition. It is based on the stair plan designed by Michelangelo for the Laurentian Library in Florence. Instead of a closed staircase, two Imperial flights of stairs are overlooked by a projecting balcony and then a gallery. Combining multiple effects of perspective and high-angle views, the staircase resembles a theatre. As for the sculpted stucco, French historian Jean-Pierre Babelon’s description of it as a “sort of physical translation of Hannibal Carache’s paintings in the Farnese Gallery” still holds true with eagles holding a lightning bolt, cupids adorned in garlands, Corinthian pilasters and various divinities vying for attention.

 

Finally, in 1660, Pierre Aubert de Fontenay purchased various properties that obstructed access to Rue Vieille-du-Temple by their gardens. Among them, a real tennis court housing the Théâtre du Marais from 1634 to 1673, where Corneille created his first plays and for which Pierre Aubert maintained the lease to allow the actors to continue to practise their art.

 

However, Pierre Aubert was unable to enjoy the sumptuous surroundings for very long, since in 1663 he was brought down by the same scandal that ruined Fouquet, the Superintendent of Finances! After his fall, the splendid house was coveted by a number of creditors. The legal proceedings lasted for 60 years. During this time, occupants included the Embassy of the Republic of Venice before the house was sold in 1728. In 1790, the house was sequestered and used during the French Revolution as a place to store and take an inventory of the books discovered in the local convents. It was sold again in 1797 and stayed in the same family until 1962. During this period, it was leased to various institutions: the Ganser-Beuzelin boarding school, where Balzac studied; the municipal École centrale des arts et manufactures (prestigious engineering school) (1829-1884), which made significant modifications to the building interior; Henri Vian, a master bronze-maker, followed by a consortium carrying out the same activity (until1941), and then, in 1944, the building was occupied by the City of Paris École des Métiers d’Art. The City acquired the house in 1964 and the property was granted Historical Monument status on 29 October 1968. None of its original contents remain. From 1974 to 1979, the hotel was restored and returned to its former spaciousness, before Roland Simounet was commissioned for its renovation.

 

To find out more : BABELON Jean-Pierre, « La maison du Bourgeois gentilhomme, l’Hôtel Salé, 5 rue de Thorigny, à Paris », Revue de l’art, année 1985, volume 68, n°68, p.7-34. Link (in French).

 

View of the entrance from Rue de Thorigny

 

 

 

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Archaeological site – Saint-Lupien in Rezé

The following content has been translated and adapted from the original work by lefildeculture in In the Estuary  25/07/2014.

Saint-Lupien in Rezé is one of the most important archaeological sites in this region. Recognized on a European scale, it is has been the object of programmed excavations and every year from June to July groups of 50 or so people have worked on exhumation of the Gallo-Roman remains. To explain the discoveries and the history of the city, a heritage interpretation and animation center (CIAP), or simply the Chronographe, has been constructed.

Rezé is a commune and former bishopric in the Loire-Atlantique department in the Pays de la Loire region of western France (Britanny or Bretagne prior to 1789). It was named Ratiatum by the Roman settlers in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, Ratiate in the Middle Ages and Rezay in the High Middle Ages. Inhabitants of Rezé are called Rezéens.

Archaeological excavations of Saint-Lupien

The first Gallo-Roman ruins in Saint-Lupien were excavated in the 19th century but it was especially during the construction of a subdivision in the 1980s that the City became aware of the size of the site and acquired the ground to protect it. In 2004, an archaeological service is created. Since then, planned excavations have been coordinated by the Inrap (National Institute of Archaeological Research), the City of Rezé and the University of Nantes and the Chronographe is the result of these studies, a presentation of the site which provides a viewing platform to better survey the remains and visualise the original site.

 

The history : the ancient city of Ratiatum

During the Roman conquest, independent tribes shared the Gallic territory. North of the Loire, the Namnetes founded the city of Condevicnum, future city of Nantes. In 56 BC, the Venetians, a people of the Armorican region, resisted. In order to defeat them, Caesar allied with Pictons, whose capital is Limonum (Poitiers), which provides him with wood, soldiers and ships. The Venetes are then defeated. It is possible that in the form of a reward, the Pictons could expand their territory to the Loire. They then founded Ratiatum, the future town of Rezé, which stretches for two kilometers along the banks and 500 meters deep inland. It does not seem like much today, but it was an important agglomeration. It was cited by geographers of the time, Strabo and Ptolemy.

The remains of the ancient quay

The strategic position of Ratiatum made it the ideal place to establish a port to promote trade, especially with the Namnètes, neighbors of the north of the Loire. Ceramics, now preserved in the departmental museum Thomas Dobré (closed for renovation), testify to exchanges with provinces sometimes very far away, for example the Palestinian region. In 2011, remains of monumental docks were discovered. This is an exceptional case in France, which indicates the wealth of the ancient city of Ratiatum.

 

 Digital reconstruction of the facilities of the Gallo-Roman port

 

These terraced wharves advanced into the river, connected by bank walls. Composed of oak beams and micaschist fragments, their state of preservation is exceptional. On the front, a series of posts at regular intervals are fixed by mortise and tenon on a sandpit (a large horizontal beam). These woods have inscriptions: Roman numerals that served as benchmarks for the assembly. Dating from dendrochronology, using growth rings of trees, it is established that these poles come from oaks felled in the winter of 88-89 AD.

 

The monumental docks in front of the Saint-Lupien Chapel

 

In the photograph, the beams are covered with a geotextile veil to keep them in a damp environment and away from light. Near the docks were warehouses, workshops and shops, following a typical checkered pattern of Roman cities. At the end of the second century AD, the port began to decline. Scientists do not have the explanation yet. Several hypotheses are formulated, including that of a silting of the Loire at this location, making the port of Ratiatum obsolete. Today, the banks of the Loire are 500 meters from the site.

 

The archeological millefeuille of Saint-Lupien Chapel

The chapel Saint-Lupien is an archeological millefeuille because it contains vestiges of all eras. Two large Gallo-Roman walls intersect at right angles. They lined the street that overlooked the wharf.

 

Gallo-Roman remains located under the chapel

 

In the Middle Ages, the site becomes a center of pilgrimage around the tomb of one of the first Christians of Rezé: Saint Lupien. Until the twelfth century, a necropolis with different types of burials occupies the site. Sarcophagi are used for the foundations of the first chapel, built in the 9th century.

 

Sarcophagi and bones in the foundations of the first chapel

 

Sarcophagus with carved head

In the fourteenth century, a new chapel that corresponded to the current plan was erected. Until the eighteenth century, it belonged to the priory of Geneston Abbey. Sold at the Revolution, the chapel Saint-Lupien became a place of storage of hay, adjoining a farm. In the nineteenth century, the owner of the farm discovered bones that he believed belong to Saint Lupien himself and built a vault. At the same time, the walls were raised and a new frame installed.

The archaeological site of Saint-Lupien continues to unveil new secrets. Villas, workshops, thermal baths, a small temple, a main street with porticoes, warehouses and monumental docks make up the ancient port district of Ratiatum, on the site of the current Saint-Lupien area. In the Middle Ages, the use of some buildings for the necropolis allowed a conservation of the foundations which gives much information on the Gallo-Roman life but also on the evolution of the site. Today, the City of Rezé wishes to highlight this heritage and make the Saint-Lupien site a cultural and tourist center at the local and national levels.

 

 

 

 

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Art and Design

How is Art Classified?

 

Traditional and contemporary art encompasses activities as diverse as:

 

Architecture, music, opera, theatre, dance, painting, sculpture, illustration, drawing, cartoons, printmaking, ceramics, stained glass, photography, installation, video, film and cinematography, to name but a few.

 

All these activities are commonly referred to as “the Arts” and are commonly classified into several overlapping categories, such as: fine, visual, plastic, decorative, applied, and performing.

 

Disagreement persists as to the precise composition of these categories, but here is a generally accepted classification.

 

  1. Fine Arts

 

This category includes those artworks that are created primarily for aesthetic reasons (‘art for art’s sake’) rather than for commercial or functional use. Designed for its uplifting, life-enhancing qualities, fine art typically denotes the traditional, Western European ‘high arts’, such as:

 

  • Drawing

Using charcoal, chalk, crayon, pastel or with pencil or pen and ink. Two major applications include: illuminated manuscripts (c.600-1200) and book illustration.

 

  • Painting

Using oils, watercolour, gouache, acrylics, ink and wash, or the more old-fashioned tempera or encaustic paints. For an explanation of colourants, see: Colour in Painting and Colour Pigments, Types, History.

 

  • Printmaking

Using simple methods like woodcuts or stencils, the more demanding techniques of engraving, etching and lithography, or the more modern forms like screen-printing, foil imaging or giclee prints. For a significant application of printmaking, see: Poster Art.

 

  • Sculpture

In bronze, stone, marble, wood, or clay.

 

Another type of Western fine art, which originated in China, is calligraphy: the highly complex form of stylized writing.

 

The Evolution of Fine Arts

 

After primitive forms of cave painting, figurine sculptures and other types of ancient art, there occured the golden era of Greek art and other schools of Classical Antiquity. The sacking of Rome (c.400-450) introduced the dead period of the Dark Ages (c.450-1000), brightened only by Celtic art and Ultimate La Tene Celtic designs, after which the history of art in the West is studded with a wide variety of artistic ‘styles’ or ‘movements’ – such as: Gothic (c.1100-1300), Renaissance (c.1300-1600), Baroque (17th century), Neo-Classicism (18th century), Romanticism (18th-19th century), Realism and Impressionism (19th century), Cubism, Expressionism, Surrealism, Abstract Expressionism and Pop-Art (20th century).

 

For a brief review of modernism (c.1860-1965), see Modern art movements; for a guide to postmodernism, (c.1965-present) see our list of the main Contemporary art movements.

 

The Tradition

 

Fine art was the traditional type of Academic art taught at the great schools, such as the the Accademia dell’Arte del Disegno in Florence, the Accademia di San Luca in Rome, the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, and the Royal Academy in London. One of the key legacies of the academies was their theory of linear perspective and their ranking of the painting genres, which classified all works into 5 types: history, portrait, genre-scenes, landscape or still life.

 

Patrons

 

Ever since the advent of Christianity, the largest and most significant sponsor of fine art has been the Christian Church. Not surprisingly therefore, the largest body of painting and/or sculpture has been religious art, as has other specific forms like icons and altarpiece art.

 

  1. Visual Arts

 

Visual art includes all the fine arts as well as new media and contemporary forms of expression such as Assemblage, Collage, Conceptual, Installation and Performance art, as well as Photography, (see also: Is Photography Art?) and film-based forms like Video Art and Animation, or any combination thereof. Another type, often created on a monumental scale is the new environmental land art.

 

  1. Plastic Arts

 

The term plastic art typically denotes three-dimensional works employing materials that can be moulded, shaped or manipulated (plasticized) in some way: such as, clay, plaster, stone, metals, wood (sculpture), paper (origami) and so on. For three-dimensional artworks made from everyday materials and “found objects”, including Marcel Duchamp’s “readymades” (1913-21).

 

  1. Decorative Arts

 

This category traditionally denotes functional but ornamental art forms, such as works in glass, clay, wood, metal, or textile fabric. This includes all forms of jewellery and mosaic art, as well as ceramics, (exemplified by beautifully decorated styles of ancient pottery notably Chinese and Greek Pottery) furniture, furnishings, stained glass and tapestry art. Noted styles of decorative art include: Rococo Art (1700-1800), Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (fl. 1848-55), Japonism (c.1854-1900), Art Nouveau (c.1890-1914), Art Deco (c.1925-40), Edwardian, and Retro.

 

Arguably the greatest period of decorative or applied art in Europe occurred during the 17th/18th centuries at the French Royal Court. For more, see: French Decorative Arts (c.1640-1792); French Designers (c.1640-1792); and French Furniture (c.1640-1792).

 

  1. Performance Arts

 

This type refers to public performance events. Traditional varieties include, theatre, opera, music, and ballet. Contemporary performance art also includes any activity in which the artist’s physical presence acts as the medium. Thus it encompasses, mime, face or body painting, and the like. A hyper-modern type of performance art is known as Happenings.

 

  1. Applied Arts

 

This category encompasses all activities involving the application of aesthetic designs to everyday functional objects. While fine art provides intellectual stimulation to the viewer, applied art creates utilitarian items (a cup, a couch or sofa, a clock, a chair or table) using aesthetic principles in their design. Folk art is predominantly involved with this type of creative activity. Applied art includes architecture, computer art, photography, industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, interior design, as well as all decorative arts. Noted styles include, Bauhaus Design School, as well as Art Nouveau, and Art Deco. One of the most important forms of 20th applied art is architecture, notably supertall skyscraper architecture, which dominates the urban environment in New York, Chicago, Hong Kong and many other cities around the world. For a review of this type of public art, see: American Architecture (1600-present).

 

 

 

 

Applied Arts

Categorising Art and Design

Applied Arts

 

This category encompasses all activities involving the application of aesthetic designs to everyday functional objects. While fine art provides intellectual stimulation to the viewer, applied art creates utilitarian items (a cup, a couch or sofa, a clock, a chair or table) using aesthetic principles in their design. Folk art is predominantly involved with this type of creative activity. Applied art includes architecture, computer art, photography, industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, interior design, as well as all decorative arts. Noted styles include, Bauhaus Design School, as well as Art Nouveau, and Art Deco. One of the most important forms of 20th applied art is architecture, notably supertall skyscraper architecture, which dominates the urban environment in New York, Chicago, Hong Kong and many other cities around the world. For a review of this type of public art, see: American Architecture (1600-present).

Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris

 

 

Musée des Arts Décoratifs, a museum of the decorative arts and design, located in the Palais du Louvre’s western wing, known as the Pavillon de Marsan, at 107 rue de Rivoli, in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France.

 

 

 

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Official website