Musée d’Orsay – A museum in a station

 
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Orsay Museum, North-West view, Paris 7th 140402.jpg

View of the Musée d’Orsay.

www.musee-orsay.fr

 

Collections : French and European art from 1848 to 1914

Number of objects : 79,470 of which 5,765 on deposit – 4,000 works permanently presented

Architect : Gae Aulenti

Location : 62, rue de Lille, 75007 Paris

The Musée d’Orsay is a national museum inaugurated in 1986, located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris along the left bank of the Seine. It is installed in the former Orsay train station, built by Victor Laloux from 1898 to 1900 and refitted as a museum by decision of the President of the Republic Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. The collections present Western art from 1848 to 1914, in all its diversity: painting, sculpture, decorative arts, graphic art, photography, architecture, etc. It is one of the largest museums in Europe.

The museum has the largest collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings in the world, with nearly 1,100 paintings 2 in total of more than 3,450, and can be seen as masterpieces of painting and sculpture such as Edouard Manet’s Breakfast on the Grass and Olympia, a proof of Degas’s Fourteen-year-old Little Dancer, The Origin of the World, A Burial in Ornans, The Painter’s Studio in Courbet, Card players Cezanne or five paintings of the series of Cathedrals Rouen Monet and Mill Ball Galette Renoir.

Temporary monographic or thematic exhibitions periodically cover the work of an artist, a current or a question in the history of art. An auditorium hosts diverse events, concerts, cinema, shadow theater, conferences and seminars and shows specifically for a young audience.

 

 

 

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A museum in a station

The history of the Musée d’Orsay, of its building is quite unusual. In the centre of Paris on the banks of the Seine, opposite the Tuileries Gardens, the museum was installed in the former Orsay railway station, built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900. So the building itself could be seen as the first “work of art” in the Musee d’Orsay, which displays collections of art from the period 1848 to 1914.

The station

On the eve of the 1900 World Fair, the French government ceded the land to the Orleans railroad company, who, disadvantaged by the remote location of the Gare d’Austerlitz, planned to build a more central terminus station on the site of the ruined Palais d’Orsay. In 1897, the company consulted three architects: Lucien Magne, Emile Bénard and Victor Laloux. The project was a challenging one due to the vicinity of the Louvre and the Palais de la Légion d’honneur: the new station needed to be perfectly integrated into its elegant surroundings. Victor Laloux, who had just completed the Hôtel de Ville in Tours, was chosen as winner of the competition in 1898.

 

Anonyme Sous le plancher métallique de la gare d'Orsay 1899 aristotype (épreuve au citrate) H. 11,9 ; L. 16,9 cm Paris musée d'Orsay, don de la SNCF, 1986
Under the metal floor of Orsay railway station
© RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
The station and hotel, built within two years, were inaugurated for the World Fair on July 14th, 1900. Laloux chose to mask the modern metallic structures with the façade of the hotel, which, built in the academic style using finely cut stone from the regions of Charente and Poitou, successfully blended in with its noble neighbours. Inside, all the modern techniques were used: ramps and lifts for luggage, elevators for passengers, sixteen underground railtracks, reception services on the ground floor, and electric traction. The open porch and lobby continued into the great hall which was 32 metres high, 40 metres wide and 138 metres long.
 The Gare d’Orsay © Musée d’Orsay
From 1900 to 1939, the Gare d’Orsay was the head of the southwestern French railroad network. The hotel received numerous travellers in addition to welcoming associations and political parties for their banquets and meetings. However, after 1939, the station was to serve only the suburbs, as its platforms had become too short for the modern, longer trains that appeared with the progressive electrification of the railroads.

From station to museum

The Gare d’Orsay then successively served different purposes : it was used as a mailing centre for sending packages to prisoners of war during the Second World War, then those same prisoners were welcomed there on their returning home after the Liberation. It was then used as a set for several films, such as Kafka’s The Trial adapted by Orson Welles, and as a haven for the Renaud-Barrault Theatre Company and for auctioneers, while the Hôtel Drouot was being rebuilt.

The hotel closed its doors on January 1st, 1973, not without having played a historic role: the General de Gaulle held the press conference announcing his return to power in its ballroom (the Salle des Fêtes).

Projet Guillaume Gillet-René Coulon pour la construction d'un hôtel à l'emplacement de la gare (c) Musée d'Orsay - Fonds Urphot - droits réservés
 Project by Guillaume Gillet and René Coulon
© Musée d’Orsay

In 1975, the Direction des Musées de France already considered installing a new museum in the train station, in which all of the arts from the second half of the 19th century would be represented. The station, threatened with destruction and replacement by a large modern hotel complex, benefitted instead from the revival of interest in nineteenth-century architecture and was listed on the Supplementary Inventory of Historical Monuments on March 8, 1973. The official decision to build the Musée d’Orsay was taken during the interministerial council of October 20, 1977, on President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing’s initiative. The building was classified a Historical Monument in 1978 and a civil commission was created to oversee the construction and organisation of the museum. The President of the Republic, François Mitterrand, inaugurated the new museum on December 1st, 1986, and it opened to the public on December 9th.

 

 

 

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The museum is located on the site of the Palais d’Orsay, built in 1810 and decorated with frescoes by Théodore Chassériau 3, which in 1840 hosts the State Council on the ground floor and two years later late the Court of Accounts on the first floor. It was burned down in 1871 during the Paris Commune and left in the state of ruins until the construction by Victor Laloux of the station of Orsay, former terminus of the Company of the Railway of Paris in Orleans, to welcome the visitors and foreign delegations from the 1900 World Exhibition.

Its esplanade, to the west, was arranged in 1985 and endowed with numerous statues including the group called Statues of the 6 continents, initially installed on the terrace of the palace of Trocadéro during the world exhibition of 1878 4.

The Musée d’Orsay opened in the converted train station, the. To allow its transformation into a museum of arts of the nineteenth century, according to the will of the President of the Republic Valery Giscard d’Estaing, the building was reconfigured from 1983 to 1986 by architects Renaud Bardon, Pierre Colboc and Jean-Paul Philippon, laureates of an architectural competition organized in 1979, then joined by the Italian interior designer Gae Aulenti.

In the night of during the Nuit Blanche, individuals broke into the museum and seriously damaging a painting by Claude Monet, The Bridge of Argenteuil, dating from 1874, making a tear of 10 cm 5. The painting has been restored since.

 

Facade of the Musée d’Orsay.

 

 

 

 

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Collections

Alexandre Charpentier, paneling in the dining room of Adrien Bénard, mahogany, oak, poplar, gilded bronze and enamelled stoneware (1900-1901).

Decorative arts

Inaugurated at the Marsan Pavilion of the Louvre in 1905, the Museum of Decorative Arts was considered in 1879 on the site attributed to the station of Orsay in 1897, which will finally find this museum vocation in 1986. The Gate of Hell of Rodin, whose plaster is visible at the median level – terrace Rodin, was to constitute the monumental entrance.

In 1977, a collection of decorative arts objects from the 1848-1914 period was created at the Musée d’Orsay. Apart from the Charpentier dining room of 1900, reconstituted in a clean space ( period room ), furniture and objects are shown out of context. Consisting of representative works of the production of ceramics, glassware, jewelery and furniture, this collection testifies to the mutation of the production of objets d’art related to the industrial revolution, that of the fine arts applied to the industry. It has some masterpieces long unknown or poorly considered and also exhibits evidence of the exceptional quality of luxury industries of that time. The museum division of the collections of objects of art distinguishes by their location those produced under the Second Empire (1852-1870) and in the first two decades of the Third Republic (1870-1940) of those corresponding to the Art Nouveau style (to from 1890).

Painting

Honoré Daumier,
Crispin and Scapin (18581860).

Jean-Louis-Ernest Meissonier,
Campaign of France 1814 (1864).

Claude Monet,
The Pie (1868-1869).

Edgar Degas,
The Star, or the Dancer on Stag, (1878).

The Musée d’Orsay exhibits and preserves the largest collection of Impressionist paintings (more than 480 paintings) 6 and post-Impressionists (more than 600 paintings 2 cloisonnists, neo-Impressionists, Symbolists, Nabis …) at world, as well as outstanding paintings of the Barbizon School, realistic, naturalistic, orientalist and academic, including foreign schools. Nearly 5,200 paintings make up the collection, but a large number of works, including some 1,720 paintings , including about 100 non-localized or destroyed, are deposited in public buildings or provincial museums, such as 20 of the 95 paintings 7 of Vuillard, 21 of Bonnard’s 87 paintings , 19 of 83 paintings by Renoir or 33 of Maurice Denis’s 79 paintings.

This non-exhaustive list lists the main painters represented at the Musée d’Orsay with the number of their works painted in the collections as well as the title of their main achievements, whether or not they are exhibited, given the regular renewal of the clashes. This list also mentions pastels, for the artists concerned: indeed, although not belonging to the painting department, a certain number of pastels are exhibited in the permanent collections of the museum.

Other artists

William Bouguereau,
Dante and Virgil (1850).

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec,
The bed (around 1892).

Paul Gauguin,
Arearea or Joyeusetés (1892).

Paul Cézanne,
Still life with apples and oranges (18951900).

The Source, by Ingres.

The Angelus of Millet.

The Fife Player, Edouard Manet.

The Balcony, Edouard Manet.

The Swing, Renoir.

Card players, Paul Cézanne.

Woman at the coffee maker, Paul Cezanne.

The Way to Louveciennes, by Alfred Sisley.

Absinthe, by Edgar Degas.

The coffee concert, Edgar Degas.

The room in Arles, Vincent Van Gogh.

Portrait of Dr. Gachet.

Women of Tahiti, Paul Gauguin.

The snake charmer, Douanier Rousseau.

War, the Douanier Rousseau.

Paul Signac,
Entrance to the port of La Rochelle (1921).

Click on a thumbnail to enlarge.

Sculpture

Eugene William, Anacreon, 1849-1851, marble.

Charles Cordier, Negro of Sudan, 1857.

Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, Sleeping Hebe, 1869, marble.

Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, The Dance , 1869, group in stone.

Louis-Ernest Barrias, bust of Henri Regnault, 1871.

Jean-Baptiste Hugues, Muse at the Source, 1900.

The six continents, 1878, forecourt of the museum.

Honoré Daumier, busts load of the Celebrities of the Right Middle, towards 1832.

Neoclassicism

Romanticism

Eclecticism of the Second Empire

  • Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (Valenciennes, 1827-Courbevoie, 1875), 117 sculptures of which:
    • Ugolino and his children , 1860, bronze
    • Princess Mathilde, 1862, marble
    • The Imperial Prince and his dog Nero, 1865, marble
    • The Four Parts of the World Supporting the Celestial Sphere, 1868-1872, Lacquered Gum Plaster
    • Danse, 1869, group of Echaillon stone deposited from the Opera Garnier
  • Charles Cordier (Cambrai, 1827-Algiers, 1905)
    • Sudan Negro, 1857, onyx, bronze and porphyry
    • Capresse des colonies, 1861, onyx, bronze and pink marble
  • Paul Dubois (Nogent-sur-Seine, 1829-Paris, 1905)
    • Florentine singer, 1865, silver-plated bronze
  • Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse (Anisy-le-Chateau, 1824-Sevres, 1887)
    • Bust of a woman wearing a tiara, 1860-1870, terracotta
    • Sleeping Hebe, 1869, marble group
  • Auguste Clésinger (Besançon, 1814-Paris, 1883)
  • Jean-Joseph Perraud (Monay, 1819-Paris, 1876)
    • Despair, 1869, marble
  • Gustave Doré (Strasbourg, 1832-Paris, 1883)
    • Joyeuseté , 1881, bronze
  • Alexandre Falguière (Toulouse, 1831-Paris, 1900)
    • The Winner in cock fight, 1864, bronze
    • Tarcisius, 1868, marble
    • Asia from the series of six continents, 1878, cast iron, parvis of the museum
  • Antonin Mercié (Toulouse, 1845-Paris, 1916)
    • David, 1871, bronze
  • Hippolyte Moulin (Paris, 1832-Charenton, 1884)
    • A find in Pompeii, 1863, bronze
  • Jean-Baptiste Baujault (The Crèche near Breloux, 1828-1899)
    • Young Gaul or Mistletoe year nine, 1870-1875, marble, mistletoe and bronze serp disappeared
  • Alexandre Schoenewerk (Paris, 1820-1885)
    • The Young Tarentine, 1871, marble
    • Europe from the series of six continents, 1878, cast iron, forecourt of the museum
  • Eugene Delaplanche (Belleville, 1839-Paris, 1891)
    • Eve before sin, 1869, marble
    • Africa from the series of six continents, 1878, cast iron, parvis of the museum
  • Augustin-Jean Moreau-Vauthier (Paris, 1831-1893)
    • Bacchante lying, 1892, marble

Eclecticism of the Third Republic

  • Jean-Paul Aubé (Longwy, 1837-Cape Breton, 1916)
    • Monument to Léon Gambetta, plaster model
  • Frederic Auguste Bartholdi (Colmar, 1834-Paris, 1904)
  • René de Saint-Marceaux (Reims, 1845-Paris, 1915)
    • Genius keeping the secret of the grave , 1879, marble
  • Jean-Baptiste Hugues (Marseille, 1849-Paris, 1930)
    • The Source Museum, 1900, cast iron, marble, bronze
    • Oedipus at Colone, 1885.
    • Lady Rateau bust, patinated plaster
    • Vine , terracotta
  • Emmanuel Fremiet (Paris, 1824-1910)
    • Saint-Michel slaying the dragon , 1897, enlarged copper hammered
    • Young elephant trapped , 1878, cast iron, forecourt of the museum
  • Louis-Ernest Barrias (Paris, 1841-1905)
    • Bust of Georges Clairin , painter, 1875, terracotta
    • The Nubians (Alligator Hunters), 1894, plaster high relief
    • Nature unveiling at Science , 1899, marble, onyx, granite, malachite, lapis lazuli.
  • Theophile Barrau (Carcassonne, 1848-Paris, 1913)
    • Suzanne, 1895, marble
  • Jules Coutan (Paris, 1848-1939)
    • Eagle Hunters, 1900, plaster
  • Jean-Léon Gérôme (Vesoul, 1824-Paris, 1904)
    • Gerome performing “The Gladiators”, bronze
    • Tanagra, polychrome marble
    • Bust of Sarah Bernhardt, tinted marble
    • Corinth, polychrome plaster, wax, metal
  • Denys Puech (Gavernac, 1854-Rodez, 1942)
    • Aurora, white and pink marbles.
  • Alexandre Falguière (Toulouse, 1831-Paris, 1900)

Realism

  • Honore Daumier (Marseille, 1808-Valmondois, 1879)
    • Celebrities of the Juste Milieu, circa 1832, 36 busts caricatures in colored raw earth
    • Ratapoil, around 1851, bronze
  • Jules Dalou (Paris, 1838-1902)
    • The Smith, 1886, study, patinated plaster
    • The Republic, 1879, terracotta sketch
    • The Great Peasant , 1897-1902, bronze
  • Constantin Meunier (Etterbeek, 1831-Ixelles, 1905)
    • Industry, 1892-1896, bronze relief
    • The Harvest , 1895, bronze relief
  • Henri Bouchard (Dijon, 1875-Paris, 1960)
    • The Tank Top, 1905, bronze
  • Bernhard Hoetger (Hörde, 1874-Beatenburg, 1949)
    • The Human Machine , 1902, bronze
  • Alfred Gilbert (London, 1854-London, 1934)
    • Saint George, 1901-1910, bronze and ivory
  • Anders Zorn (Mora, 1860-1920)
    • Figure for a fountain II, 1910, bronze

Impressionism and Auguste Rodin

Rodin, Saint John the Baptist (Orsay Museum).

Rodin, Door of Hell , 1880-1917, plaster.

Paul Gauguin, Oviri, 1894.
  • Edgar Degas (Paris, 1834-1917), 76 sculptures of which:
    • The Little Dancer of fourteen, 1921-1931 after the original of 1881, bronze, tulle, satin
    • Dancer looking at the sole of her right foot , 1921-1931, bronze
    • Dancer, large arabesque, third time , 1921-1931, bronze
    • Woman sitting in an armchair wiping the left armpit , 1921-1931, bronze
    • Jockey , 1921-1931, bronze
    • Picking apples , 1921-1931, bronze bas-relief
    • The tub , 1921-1931, bronze
  • Auguste Renoir (Limoges, 1841-Cagnes-sur-Mer, 1919) and Richard Guino (Girona, 1890-Antony, 1973)
    • Madame Renoir , 1916, polychrome mortar
    • Judgment of Paris , 1914, plaster
    • Water , 1916, bronze
    • Fire , after 1916, bronze
  • Auguste Rodin (Paris, 1840-Meudon, 1917), 26 sculptures of which:
    • Bust of Madame Vicuna , 1917, bronze
    • Bust of Jules Dalou , 1917, bronze
    • The Bronze Age, 1877, bronze
    • Bust of Jean-Paul Laurens , 1917, bronze
    • Thought (portrait of Camille Claudel) , 1886-1889, marble
    • Fugit amor , circa 1881, small bronze group
    • Monument to Balzac , 1898, plaster model
    • Saint John the Baptist , 1878, bronze
    • the walking man , 1905, bronze
    • The Gate of Hell, 1880-1917, High Relief in Plaster
  • Camille Claudel (Fere-in-Tardenois, 1864-Avignon, 1943)
    • The Wall Age, circa 1902, bronze
    • Clotho’s torso, circa 1893, plaster
    • Old woman’s head, study for Mature age, circa 1890, plaster
    • Study II for Sakountala, circa 1886, terracotta
  • Medardo Rosso (Turin 1858-Milan, 1928)
    • Aetas Aurea, 1886, bronze
    • Ecce puer, 1906, bronze

Primitivism

  • Paul Gauguin (Paris, 1848-Atuana, Marquesas Islands, 1903), 30 sculptures and works of art including:
    • Be mysterious, 1890, polychrome linden wood
    • Mask of Tehura, 1891-1893, polychrome pua wood
    • Idol with the shell, 1892-1893, ironwood, mother-of-pearl and bone
    • Idol with pearl, 1892-1893, painted and gilded wood, pearl, gold chain
    • Oviri (Wild), 1894, partly enamelled stoneware
    • Maison du jouir , 1901, 5 reliefs in painted wood of sequoia gigantéa.
  • Georges Lacombe (Versailles, 1868 – Saint Nicholas of the Woods, 1916)
    • Existence, 1894-1896, walnut
    • Iris, 1893-1894, polychrome mahogany

Symbolism

  • Albert Bartholomew (Thiverval, 1848-Paris, 1928)
    • Crying little girl , 1894, bronze.
  • Marie Bashkirtseff (Gawronzi, 1860-Paris, 1884)
    • The pain of Nausicaa, 1884, bronze.
  • Boleslas Biegas (Koziczyn, 1877-Paris, 1954)
    • The Sphinx, 1902, plaster relief.
  • Leonardo Bistolfi (Casale Monferrato, 1859-Turin, 1933)
    • The Crib , 1906, plaster,
  • Arnold Böcklin (Basel, 1827-San Domenico, 1901)
    • Shield with the face of Medusa , 1897, papier-mache painted.
  • Rupert Carabin (Saverne, 1862-Strasbourg, 1932)
    • The Savernoise Legend , 1914, pear wood.
  • Jean Carriès (Lyon, 1855-Paris, 1894)
    • Bishop , 1883-1889, bronze.
    • Loyse Labé , around 1990, sandstone.
    • Fauna , 1893, bronze.
  • Alexandre Charpentier (Paris, 1856- Neuilly, 1909)
    • Louis Welden Hawkins , 1893, bronze.
  • Henry Cros (Narbonne, 1840-Sèvres, 1907)
    • The history of water , 1894, bas-relief in glass paste.
  • Jean Dampt (Venarey, 1853-1946)
    • Towards the ideal through suffering , 1900-1906, pink marble of Comblanchien .
  • Paul Dardé (Olmet, 1888-Lodeve, 1963)
    • The Eternal Pain , 1913, gypsum.
  • Alfred Drury (London, 1859-Wimbledon, 1944)
    • The Spirit of the night , 1898-1905, bronze.
  • Fernand Khnopff (Montigny-le-Bretonneux, 1858-Brussels, 1921)
    • Future , 1898, marble, brass and copper.
  • Max Klinger (Leipzig, 1857-Grossjena, 1920)
    • Cassandra , 1886-1900, bronze.
  • Maurice Maignan (Beaumont-sur-Sarthe, 1845-Saint-Prix, 1908)
    • A beggar , 1897, sitting statuette, bronze.
  • Pierre-Felix Masseau, (Lyon, 1869-Paris, 1937)
    • The Secret , 1894, polychrome mahogany and ivory.
  • Franz Metzner (Wscherau, 1870-Berlin, 1919)
    • The weight of sorrow , around 1912, patinated black plaster
  • Carl Miles (Lagga, 1875-Lidingö, 1955)
    • Young girl with a cat , around 1900, bronze.
    • Beggar , around 1900, bronze.
    • The fight for life , before 1929, bronze and marble
  • George Minne (Ghent, 1866-Sint-Martens-Latem, 1941)
    • The mason , marble
    • Kneeling at the fountain , 1898, bronze
    • Porter of addition , 1897, bronze.
  • Pierre Roche (Paris, 1855-1922)
  • Augustus Saint-Gaudens (Dublin, 1848-Cornish, 1907)
    • Amor caritas , 1885-1898, bronze.
  • Franz von Stuck (Tettenweis, 1863-Munich, 1928)
    • Ludwig van Beethoven , 1900, polychrome plaster
  • City Vallgren (Porvoo, 1855-Helsinki, 1940)
    • Pain , circa 1893, polychrome oolitic limestone .
    • Beggar and her child or misery , 1892, bronze.
    • Christ , circa 1889, patinated plaster.
  • Félix Vallotton (Lausanne, 1865-Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1925)
    • Woman holding back her shirt , 1904, bronze
  • Adolfo Wildt (Milan, 1868-1931)
    • Vir temporis acti , 1921, bronze.

Animal Sculpture

Henri-Alfred Jacquemart, Rhinoceros, 1878, forecourt of the museum.
  • Alfred Barye (Paris, 1839-1882)
  • Antoine-Louis Barye (Paris, 1795-1855), 34 sculptures of which:
    • Lion’s paw raised on a snake, 1832, bronze
    • Two bears fighting, 1833, bronze
    • Tartar warrior on horseback, 1845, bronze
    • Seated lion, 1847, gum-lacquered plaster
    • Order, 1854-1855, plaster, wood
    • The war, 1855, plaster, wood
  • Émile-Coriolan Guillemin (Paris, 1841-1907)
  • Henri-Alfred Jacquemart (Paris, 1824-1896)
    • Rhinoceros, 1878, cast iron, forecourt of the museum
  • Rembrandt Bugatti, (Milan, 1884-Paris, 1916), 61 sculptures of which:
    • Panther walking, circa 1904, plaster
    • White elephant, 1907, bronze
    • Giraffes, 1907, plaster
    • Lion of Nubia, circa 1911, plaster
    • Two lamas, 1911, bronze

  • François Pompon, (Saulieu, 1855-Paris, 1933), 131 sculptures of which:
    • Polar Bear, 1925, Lens Stone 8
    • Polar bear, 1920, plaster draft
    • Polar bear, 1927, bronze
    • Hippopotamus, 1918-1931, bronze
    • Gray Crane, 1920, bronze
    • Owl, 1923, bronze
    • Great deer, 1929, plaster

The return to style

  • Antoine Bourdelle (Montauban, 1861- The Vesinet, 1929)
    • Apollo, 1909, gilt bronze
    • Penelope, (1907-1926), bronze
    • The Force of the Will, (1914-1915), bronze, forecourt of the museum
    • The Victory, (1914-1915), bronze, forecourt of the museum
    • Herakles Archer, 1909, bronze and gilding, after the second version of 1923, melted by Eugène Rudier in 1924

  • Albert Bartholomew (Thiverval, 1848-Paris, 1928)
    • Bust of Federico Zandomenighi , painter, 1890, plaster
  • Joseph Bernard (Vienna, 1866-Boulogne-Billancourt, 1931)
    • Water carrier, 1912, bronze
    • Dance, 1911-1913, marble relief
  • Aristide Maillol (Banyuls-sur-Mer, 1861-1944)
    • Mediterranean or Thought, 1905-1927, marble
    • Ile-de-France, 1925-1933, stone
    • Bather with raised arms, 1900, bronze
    • Desire, 1905-1907, relief in lead

Photography

The photography collection of the Musée d’Orsay was entirely made from scratch from the late 1970s when the project of transforming the former Orsay railway station into a museum of the XIX th century has been taken, no museum fine arts in France does not yet have a section dedicated to photography. It became apparent that this major invention of the XIX th century was to take place in the future museum 9. The works of many photographers are preserved in the collections of the Musée d’Orsay, including those of Hippolyte Bayard, Édouard Baldus, Christian Bérard, Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre, Felix Nadar, Nicephore Niepce, Constant Alexander Fam

 

 

 

 

Notes and references


  1. [archive]
  2. a and b Not including the 414 paintings , sketches and studies of the studio collection of the symbolist painter Alphonse Osbert.
  3. The Louvre retains some frescoes Chassériau, spare the grand staircase, some in the last rooms of the Department of French sculptures.
  4. Statues in front of the Orsay Museum  [ archive ] on the Paris 1900 site  [ archive ] , accessed March 30, 2014
  5. Drunk, they damage a Monet TF1  [ archive
  6. Including 64 paintings by Gauguin, Van Gogh and Toulouse Lautrec.
  7. When searching for “paintings” of an artist in the online catalog of the museum, it is necessary to deduce the deposits of particular collections, as well as the “designation: drawing”, because after 2014 the drawings are kept in the museum of Orsay, rather than the Louvre as before.
  8. According to the original plaster of 1922 exhibited at the Musée de l’Homme
  9. See the history of the constitution of the photography collection at the official site of the Musée d’Orsay  [ archive ]
  10. The museum of Orsay authorizes the photos … thanks to a tweet of Fleur Pellerin? »  [ Archive ] , on metronews.fr/ ,(accessed April 27, 2015 )
  11. The Musée d’Orsay forbade photos … to Fleur Pellerin [ archive ] , on lefigaro.fr ,(accessed April 27, 2015 )
  12. Decree reproduced on the website of the Musée d’Orsay  [ archive ]
  13. Decree reproduced on the website of the Musée d’Orsay  [ archive ]
  14. Article Site Artclair  [ archive ]
  15. Status  [ archive ] on the site of the Musée d’Orsay.
  16. Decree of the Minister of Culture and Communication dated 2 May 1979 published in the Official Journal of the French Republic on 18 (appointment of the Director of the public institution of the museum of XIX th century from 15 October 1978) .
  17. Decree of 15 March 1986 appointing the director of the Musée d’Orsay.
  18. Decree of 12 August 1994 appointing the director of the Musée d’Orsay.
  19. Order of 9 April 2001 concerning the interim appointment of the director of the Musée d’Orsay.
  20. Decree of 26 November 2001 appointing the Director of the Musée d’Orsay.
  21. Decree of 26 May 2004 appointing the President of the Public Establishment of the Musée d’Orsay.
  22. Decree of 5 July 2007 appointing the President of the Public Establishment of the Musée d’Orsay – Mr. Lemoine (Serge).
  23. Decree of 28 January 2008 appointing the President of the Public Establishment of the Musée d’Orsay – Mr. Cogeval (Guy).
  24. Decree of 15 March 2013 appointing the President of the Public Establishment of the Musée d’Orsay and the Musée de l’Orangerie – Mr. COGEVAL (Guy).
  25. Laurence des Cars in Orsay: the new president, this is it! »  [ Archive ], on France Culture ,(accessed April 3, 2017 )
  26. The SAMO [ archive ] , on http://www.amis-musee-orsay.org  [ archive ] (accessed July 4, 2014 )
  27. ( in ) AFMO , News & Events – AFMO [ archive ] , on AFMO (accessed 29 January 2016 )
  28. Musée d’Orsay: Get involved! Join the Circle of Patron Women!  [ Archive ], on www.musee-orsay.fr (accessed January 29, 2016 )
  29. Notice of the book, on the Orsay Museum site.  [ archive ]
  30. “The ideal library # 46:” Modern Olympia “, a pictorial fantasy Catherine Meurisse” article article Télérama  [ archive ] , the 26/03/2014.
  31. Album index on the site of its co-publisher Futuropolis.  [ archive ]
  32. The book, on the Orsay Museum site.  [ archive ]

See also

On other Wikimedia projects:

Bibliography

Literature

Related Articles


Musée du Louvre

 

Official website

 

Wikipedia

The Louvre or the Louvre Museum (French: Musée du Louvre), is the world’s largest art museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the city’s 1st arrondissement (district or ward). Approximately 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres (782,910 square feet). In 2017, the Louvre was the world’s most visited art museum, receiving 8.1 million visitors.

The museum is housed in the Louvre Palace, originally built as a fortress in the late 12th to 13th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to the urban expansion of the city, the fortress eventually lost its defensive function and, in 1546, was converted by Francis I into the main residence of the French Kings. The building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre primarily as a place to display the royal collection, including, from 1692, a collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons. The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nation’s masterpieces.

The museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being royal and confiscated church property. Because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801. The collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum was renamed Musée Napoléon, but after Napoleon’s abdication many works seized by his armies were returned to their original owners. The collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, and during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown steadily through donations and bequests since the Third Republic. The collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities; Near Eastern Antiquities; Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Art; Sculpture; Decorative Arts; Paintings; Prints and Drawings.

 

 

 

 

 

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Louvre Databases

 

Musée de l’Orangerie

 

Musée de l’Orangerie

Musée de l’Orangerie (Estb. 1852) entrance
Location – Place de la Concorde
75001 Paris, France
Access – Concorde

Website – www.musee-orangerie.fr

The Musée de l’Orangerie is an art gallery of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings located in the west corner of the Tuileries Gardens next to the Place de la Concorde in Paris. Though most famous for being the permanent home for eight Water Lilies murals by Claude Monet, the museum also contains works by Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Rousseau, Alfred Sisley, Chaim Soutine, and Maurice Utrillo, among others.

 

Location

The gallery is on the bank of the Seine in the old orangery of the Tuileries Palace on the Place de la Concorde near the Concorde metro station.

History

 According to the museum’s website, the Orangerie was originally built in 1852 by the architect Firmin Bourgeois and completed by his successor, Ludovico Visconti, to shelter the orange trees of the garden of the Tuileries. Used by the Third Republic in the nineteenth century as deposit for goods, an examination room, and place of lodging for mobilized soldiers, it also served to house sporting, musical, and patriotic events. Additionally, it was a place to display exhibitions of industry, animals, plants, as well as rare displays of painting.
 As art historian Michel Hoog states, “In 1921, the administration of the Beaux-Arts decided to assign to the Direction des Musées Nationaux (as it was then called) the two buildings overlooking the Place de la Concorde, the Jeu de Paume, and the Orangerie, which until then had been used for their original purpose. The Orangerie became an annex of the Musée du Luxembourg, unanimously criticized for being too small, while the Jeu de Paume was to be used for temporary exhibitions and to house contemporary foreign painting.” Claude Monet had requested to donate decorative panels to the French government as a monument to the end of World War I, and former politician (and close friend of Monet) Georges Clémenceau suggested that Monet install the paintings at the newly available Orangerie (rather than at the Jeu de Paume, which had smaller wall space, or, as was formerly planned, as an annex to the Musée Rodin).

On April 12, 1922 Claude Monet signed a contract donating the Nymphéas series of decorative panels painted on canvas to the French government, to be housed in redesigned, oval rooms at the Orangerie. With input from Monet, the head architect at the Louvre, Camille Lefèvre, drafted new plans and elevations in 1922 to house Monet’s large Nymphéas canvases, incorporating natural light, plain walls, and sparse interior decoration. According to Hoog’s research, “funds were made available on August 17, 1922, work began in October and seems to have been finished in [the] following year.” Unwilling to relinquish his final works of art, these water lilies paintings stayed with Monet until his death on December 5, 1926. On January 31, 1927 the Laurent-Fournier company agreed to install and mount the panels (a process that involved gluing the canvas directly to the walls), and the paintings were in place by March 26 of that year. On May 17, 1927 Monet’s Nymphéas at the Musée de l’Orangerie opened to the public.

According to Hoog, “In August 1944, during the battle for the Liberation of Paris, five shells fell on the rooms of the Nymphéas; two panels (those situated on the wall between the two rooms) were slightly damaged and immediately restored. In 1984, this restoration work was renewed and a general cleaning was effected.”

In January 2000, the museum was closed for renovation work, completely reviewed and restructured, and re-opened to the public in May 2006.

Paul Guillaume‘s widow, Mrs. Jean Walter, donated their modern art collection to the Musées Nationaux in 1958. The Orangerie has housed the Paul Guillaume collection of 19th and 20th century modern paintings since 1965.

Monet’s Water Lilies

Claude Monet‘s Nymphéas on display in the museum.

A cycle of Monet’s water-lily paintings, known as the Nymphéas, was arranged on the ground floor of the Orangerie in 1927. They are available under direct diffused light as was originally intended by Monet. The eight paintings are displayed in two oval rooms all along the walls. The museum was closed to the public from the end of August 1999 until May 2006. For several months before it was closed there was a special exhibit of Monet’s Nymphéas that were gathered from museums throughout the world. More than 60 of the 250 paintings he made of the water lilies in his garden were included. The walls were repainted in shades of purples and violet for this special exhibit. The Orangerie was renovated in order to move the paintings to the upper floor of the gallery.

 

Art museum – Impressionist and Post-impressionist paintings

Château de Versailles

Queens bedroom last modified by Marie Antoinette

 

 

 

From the official website

The Palace of Versailles has been listed as a World Heritage Site for 30 years and is one of the greatest achievements in French 17th century art. Louis XIII’s old hunting pavilion was transformed and extended by his son, Louis XIV, when he installed the Court and government there in 1682. A succession of kings continued to embellish the Palace up until the French Revolution.

 

 

In 1789, the French Revolution forced Louis XVI to leave Versailles for Paris. The Palace would never again be a royal residence and a new role was assigned to it in the 19th century, when it became the Museum of the History of France in 1837 by order of King Louis-Philippe, who came to the throne in 1830. The rooms of the Palace were then devoted to housing new collections of paintings and sculptures representing great figures and important events that had marked the History of France. These collections continued to be expanded until the early 20th century at which time, under the influence of its most eminent curator, Pierre de Nolhac, the Palace rediscovered its historical role when the whole central part was restored to the appearance it had had as a royal residence during the Ancien Régime.

 

The Palace of Versailles never played the protective role of a medieval stronghold. Beginning in the Renaissance period, the term “chateau” was used to refer to the rural location of a luxurious residence, as opposed to an urban palace. It was thus common to speak of the Louvre “Palais” in the heart of Paris, and the “Château” of Versailles out in the country. Versailles was only a village at the time. It was destroyed in 1673 to make way for the new town Louis XIV wished to create. Currently the centrepiece of Versailles urban planning, the Palace now seems a far cry from the countryside residence it once was. Nevertheless, the garden end on the west side of the Estate of Versailles is still adjoined by woods and agriculture.

 

 

 

 

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Tours – Musée des Beaux-Arts

 

 

 

The Musée des beaux-arts de Tours is located in the bishop’s former palace near the Cathedral St. Gatien, where it has been since 1910.It displays rich and varied collections, including that of painting which is one of the first in France both in quality and the diversity of the works presented.

The Museum of Fine Arts Tours is housed in a historic building of exceptional quality. The site is of paramount importance for the history of ancient Caesarodunum; the museum houses in its underground the most beautiful lapidary inscription to the glory of the Turons. The first bishops had chosen to settle near the cathedral, in a palace along the wall of the fourth century.

Another vestige of this period, a chapel leaning against the archbishops palace dating from the fourth century. and rebuilt in 591 by order of Gregory of Tours. This building was transformed in the twelfth century and partly destroyed in the seventeenth century during the development of the new Archbishop’s palace of Bishop Bertrand d’Eschaux .. In the twelfth century was built the so-called wing of the Synod. Constantly transformed over the centuries, this huge hall where gathered twice (1468 and 1484) the States General of the Kingdom of France is one of the most evocative historical sites in the history of Touraine.

Monsignor Rosset de Fleury completed the project thanks to the construction of the pediment and attic palace and the layout of the terraces whose curve follows the layout of the Roman amphitheater. Finally, Monsignor de Conzié had the imposing portal and the semicircle of the main courtyard erected in 1775, instead of the old stables. He transformed the old synod hall into an archiepiscopal chapel and commissioned an antique colonnade for this purpose.

After 1789, the Palace of the Archbishops became a theater, Central School, library then by departmental order of October 6, 1792 and the passionate energy of the founder of the school of drawing of the City, Charles-Antoine Rougeot and his son-in-law, Jean -Jacques Raverot, a deposit of works seized at the Revolution.

The museum was officially created in 1801, in 1802 and throughout the nineteenth century, buildings were again assigned to the archbishop. It was not until 1910 that the collections returned to the former archiepiscopal palace.

 

 

 

Panoramic view of Tours by Demachy

 

Collections (Wikipedia)

The museum has a large and fairly homogeneous collection of paintings, which includes several masterpieces such as two paintings by Andrea Mantegna, from the predella of the San Zeno Altarpiece:

 

 

 

 

 

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Musée des Beaux-Arts official website

Google Maps – Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tours

Nantes – Museum – Nantes Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle

 

 

 

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Google Maps – Natural History Museum