Musée d'Orsay
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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The Musée d'Orsay is a museum in Paris, France, on the left bank of the Seine, housed in the former railway station, the Gare d'Orsay. It holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography, and is probably best known for its extensive collection of impressionist masterpieces by popular painters such as Monet and Renoir. Many of these works were held at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume prior to the museum's opening in 1986.
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History
The museum building was originally a railway station, Gare d'Orsay, constructed for the Chemin de Fer de Paris à Orléans and finished in time for the 1900 Exposition Universelle to the design of three architects: Lucien Magne, Émile Bénard and Victor Laloux. It was the terminus for the railways of southwestern France until 1939.
By 1939 the station's short platforms had become unsuitable for the longer trains that had come to be used for mainline services. After 1939 it was used for suburban services and part of it became a mailing center during World War II. The station's hotel closed on 1 January, 1973.
Museum conversion
In 1977 the French Government decided to convert the station to a museum. ACT Architecture (Renaud Bardon, Pierre Colboc and Jean-Paul Philippon) were the designers and the construction work was carried by Bouygues. The works involved creating 20,000 sq. m. of new floorspace on four floors. The new museum was opened by President François Mitterrand on 1 December 1986.
Management
The Directors have been:
- Françoise Cachin: 1986–1994
- Henri Loyrette: 1994–2001
- Serge Lemoine: 2001–present
Collection
Major painters
- Gustave Courbet — The Artist's Studio, Young Man Sitting, L'Origine du monde
- Jean-François Millet — Spring, The Gleaners
- Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot — A Morning. The Dance of the Nymphs
- Alexandre Cabanel — The Birth of Venus, The Death of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta
- Jean-Léon Gérôme — Portrait of the baroness Nathaniel de Rothschild, Reception of Condé in Versailles, La Comtesse de Keller
- Pierre Puvis de Chavannes — Young Girls by the Seaside, The Young Mother also known as Charity, View on the Château de Versailles and the Orangerie
- Eugène Boudin — Trouville Beach
- Camille Pissarro — White Frost
- Édouard Manet — Olympia, The Balcony, Berthe Morisot With a Bouquet of Violets, The Luncheon on the Grass
- Edgar Degas — The Parade, also known as Race Horses in front of the Tribunes, The Bellelli Family, The Tub, Portrait of Edouard Manet, Portraits, At the Stock Exchange, L’Absinthe
- Paul Cézanne — Apples and Oranges
- Claude Monet — The Saint-Lazare Station, The Rue Montorgueil in Paris. Celebration of June 30, 1878, Wind Effect, Series of The Poplars, Rouen Cathedral. Harmony in Blue
- Odilon Redon — Caliban
- Pierre-Auguste Renoir — Bal au moulin de la Galette, Montmartre
- Jules Desbois — Destitution
- Ferdinand Hodler — Der Holzfäller (The Woodcutter)
- Gustave Caillebotte — The Floor Planers
- Édouard Detaille — The Dream
- Vincent Van Gogh — Self Portriat,The Siesta, The Church at Auvers, View from the Chevet, The Italian Woman, Starry Night Over the Rhone, Portrait of Dr. Gachet
- Eugène Jansson — Proletarian Lodgings
- Paul Signac — Women at the Well
- Félix Vallotton — Misia at Her Dressing Table
- Georges-Pierre Seurat — The Circus
- Pierre Bonnard — The Chequered Blouse
- André Devambez — The Charge
- Paul Sérusier — The Talisman, the Aven River at the Bois d'Amour
- Maurice Denis — Portrait of the Artist Aged Eighteen, Princess Maleine's Minuet or Marthe Playing the Piano, The Green Trees or Beech Trees in Kerduel, October Night (panel for the decoration of a girl's room)
- André Derain — Charing Cross Bridge, also known as Westminster Bridge
- James McNeill Whistler — Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist's Mother, also known as Whistler's Mother
Template:Western European & American Paintings
Major sculptors
François Rude, Jules Cavelier, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Auguste Rodin, Paul Gauguin, Camille Claudel and Honoré Daumier.
Other works
It also holds collections of:
- architecture and decorative arts
- photography
