Musée d'Orsay

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Musée d'Orsay
Shown within France Paris
Established	1986
Location	Rue de Lille 75343 Paris, France
Visitor figures	2,590,000 (2004) [1]
Director	Serge Lemoine
Website	www.musee-orsay.fr

Coordinates: 48°51′36″N 2°19′37″E / 48.860, 2.327

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 1915, 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.

Contents 1 History 2 Museum conversion 3 Management 4 Collection 4.1 Major painters 4.2 Major sculptors 4.3 Other works 5 References 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] 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. 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 station's hotel closed on 1 January 1973.

[edit] 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^[1]. The Italian architect Gae Aulenti oversaw the design of the conversion from 1980 to 1986. The work 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.

[edit] Management

The Directors have been:

• Françoise Cachin: 1986–1994
• Henri Loyrette: 1994–2001
• Serge Lemoine: 2001–present

[edit] Collection

[edit] 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, Blue Water Lilies
• 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
• Brian Wright — "The Man"
• 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

v • d • e Museums with major collections of Western European & American Paintings Paintings (mid-13th century to 20C) State Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia 16,783 paintings [2] Musée du Louvre, Paris, France 11,900 paintings [2] Royal Collection, London, UK 7,000 paintings [3] Hungarian National Gallery, Budapest, Hungary 6,000 paintings [4] National Museum of Serbia , Belgrade , Serbia 5,600 paintings and around 8,400 drawings and prints [5] Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands 5,500 paintings [6] Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France 5,033 paintings [7] Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, Italy 4,800 paintings [8] Tate Collection, London, UK 4,442 paintings [9] Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany 4,000 paintings [10] Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium 3,200 paintings [11] Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain 3,000 paintings [12] Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, Hungary 3,000 paintings [13] Das Städel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany 2,700 paintings [14] National Gallery, London, UK 2,300 paintings [15] Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA 2,200 paintings [16] Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK 2,000 paintings [17] Yale Center for British Art, Connecticut, USA 1,900 paintings [18] Accademia Carrara di Bergamo, Bergamo, Italy 1,800 paintings [19] Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK 1697 paintings (inc. 200 paintings from Christ Church Picture Gallery) [20] [21] Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, USA 1,600 paintings [22] Gräflich Lambergsche Gemählde-Gallerie, Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien, Vienna, Austria 1,600 paintings [23] Liechtenstein Museum, Vienna, Austria 1,500 paintings [24] Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria 1,400 paintings [25] National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., USA 1,200 paintings [26] Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, UK 1,181 paintings [27] Fogg Art Museum, Massachusetts, USA 1,100 paintings [28] Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, USA 1,011 paintings [29] Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain 1,000 paintings [30] Munch Museum, Oslo, Norway 1,000 paintings [31] Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Connecticut, USA 900 paintings [32] Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, USA 900 paintings [33] Le Musée Condé, Chantilly, France 850 paintings [34] Alte Pinakothek, Munich, Germany 800 paintings [35] Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands 800 paintings [36] Doria Pamphilj Gallery, Rome, Italy 800 paintings [37] Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, USA 800 paintings [38] Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden, Germany 750 paintings [39] Wallace Collection, London, UK 650 paintings [40] Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, UK 644 paintings [41] Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK 530 paintings [42] Palazzo Pitti, Florence, Italy 500 paintings [43] Vatican Museums, Vatican City 460 Paintings (ex. Raphael Stanze, Sistine Chapel) [44] J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, USA 450 paintings [45] Musée National Picass, Paris, France 250 paintings (small selection of work by other artists) [46] Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands 200 paintings [47] Notable Exceptions (lack of information): Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA The Phillips Collection, Washington, USA Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, USA Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris, France Musée Jacquemart-André, Paris, France Musée Marmottan-Monet, Paris, France Schloss Wilhelmshöhe, Kassel, Germany Galleria Borghese, Rome, Italy Palazzo Spada, Rome, Italy Gallerie dell'Accadenia, Venice, Italy Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence, Italy Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, Italy Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy Museo Civico di Castelvecchio, Verona, Italy Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino, Italy Galleria nazionale di Parma, Parma, Italy Galleria nazionale dell'Umbria, Perugia, Italy Museo nazionale di San Matteo, Pisa, Italy São Paulo Museum of Art, São Paulo, Brazil n.b. it should be noted that this list is controversial, in so far as it contains only quantitative analysis of museum holdings. These may or may not reflect actual artistic quality of collections in question.

[edit] Major sculptors

François Rude, Jules Cavelier, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Auguste Rodin, Paul Gauguin, Camille Claudel and Honoré Daumier.

[edit] Other works

It also holds collections of:

• architecture and decorative arts
• photography

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• List of museums in Paris

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Jason Coyne's Orsay Gallery Detail Photographs of several of the works.
• Orsay Museum — Photo Gallery
• Pictures and info
• Insecula: Musée d'Orsay virtual visit
• Musée d’Orsay — current photographs and of the years 1900

v • d • e Popular visitor attractions in Paris Arc de Triomphe • Basilique du Sacré-Cœur, Paris • Cathedral of Notre Dame • Centre Georges Pompidou • Champs-Élysées • Conciergerie • Eiffel Tower • Grand Palais • Jardin du Luxembourg • Les Invalides • Louvre • Musée d'Orsay • Opéra Garnier • Père Lachaise Cemetery