Paris - The Orsay Museum - 7me

Plate LXI - The Orsay Museum...

Arguably the most beautiful museum in all of Europe (I certainly have not seen one I prefer) the Orsay Museum is housed in the splendour of the old Orsay railway station. With similarities in design to the Grand and Petit Palaces, Victor Laloux completed the station in three years to ensure that it was available for the Paris exhibition of 1900. Abandoned as a station only a short thirty-nine years later owing to the short platforms not suiting the increasingly long trains of the times, the deterioration of the structure placed it under threat of demolition. Many sepia postcards recording its days as a station may be found in the stalls of the bouquinistes.

It survived through serving various temporary purposes (including being used by Orson Welles as a film set), and was declared a national monument by President Georges Pompidou in 1978 with plans for its conversion to a museum being unveiled in 1977. Work on the massive project lasted from 1980 to 1986, when the 20,000 square metres of exhibition space was opened by President Mitterand on December 1st.

Currently housing exhibits of mainly 19th and early 20th century work, the Orsay bridges the gap between the antiquities and old masters of the Louvre, and the modern contemporary works of the Tokyo Palace and Pompidou Centre. Perhaps the most notable collections are of the impressionist group, works that demand the more natural lighting and airiness of the Orsay. There are collections of architecture and the decorative arts, and most notably a fine gallery devoted to the art of the photographer. 

Was there something particular I sought here? Apart from the usual suspects – too numerous to list - there were two works I specifically sought. My grandmother had always treasured a pair of prints of Millet’s works the Gleaners and the Angelus. They’re here - and did not disappoint me.  

Unlike the Louvre, you can cover the Orsay in single visit, but do take a full day!!!