Musée de l'Orangerie

The Musée de l' Orangerie is an art museum in Paris. It houses works of Impressionism, from Late Impressionism and the Ecole de Paris.

Location

The Musée de l' Orangerie is located in the 1st arrondissement in the Jardin des Tuileries. It is immediately adjacent to the Place de la Concorde, on the south, the. His side facing the green area Opposite, at the northwestern end of the Jardin des Tuileries, there is the Gallery nationale du Jeu de Paume.

History

The plans for the building of the Musée de l' Orangerie originally came from the French architect Firmin Bourgeois. Under the leadership of his successor, Louis Visconti in 1852 to complete as an orangery for the Jardin des Tuileries. The building served during the Second Empire to its purpose in accordance with retention of cold-sensitive plants of the Tuileries during the winter months. In the first decades of the Third French Republic, the Orangerie was different uses. So it came to be used as material storage, barracks, concert and festival hall and sports hall. There were also in the building industry, horticultural, canine and occasionally also art exhibitions.

1921, the orangery building in the management of Fine Arts, it was assumed that here, as in the dedicated opposite Jeu de Paume, a branch of, the contemporary art, the Musée du Luxembourg planned. On the initiative of Georges Clemenceau arrived in the 1920s, eight large water lily paintings of his friend Claude Monet as a gift to the French State. This was installed in two oval rooms of the ground floor of the Orangerie, so that they depict as a sort of panoramic Monet's Water Lily Pond at Giverny. André Masson designated in 1952 this water lily decorations at the Orangerie as the "Sistine Chapel of Impressionism ." The rooms also known as Musée Claude Monet, occupying about half of the exhibition space of the building. The other half of the Musée de l' Orangerie continued to serve temporary exhibitions. Thus, the major retrospective on the occasion of the 100th birthday of Édouard Manet took place here in 1932. Similarly, the Musée de l' Orangerie acknowledged in 1941 the painter Berthe Morisot.

In the years 1959 and 1963, the collection of Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume came into the possession of the Musée de l' Orangerie. In order to exhibit the paintings of this collection in 144 buildings, an extensive rebuilding took place 1960-1965, in which a concrete ceiling was added, so that a second floor was built within the existing building. The works of Monet remained at the same location on the ground floor and were given an artificial lighting, while the rooms of the Walter -Guillaume collection possessed the newly created second floor with natural daylight.

Between 2000 and 2006, made ​​in consideration of preservation a fundamental reconstruction and expansion of the building. To go back to daylight for the Water Lilies Monet, the concrete ceiling of the museum was again removed. For the collection of Walter / Guillaume right beside of building an underground building, whose ground-level glass ceiling also this museum area allows lighting with daylight. The discovered during the excavation remains of a 400 year old city wall from the time of Louis XIII. delayed the construction work, since these historic records were secured and these are partially visible in the museum today. By construction, the cost of which amounted to 29 million euros, the museum area of ​​3,200 m² could be increased to 6,300 m².

The Collection

Is known, the Musée de l' Orangerie, especially for the two rooms with the Water Lilies by Claude Monet. These paintings are up to 17 meters wide and 2 meters high and each give a total length of more than 100 meters. In addition to this created in the beginning of the 20th century images of Monet, the Museum has another artist's work from 1874, the year of the first Impressionist exhibition. The painting Argenteuil is one of the earliest images of the Walter / Guillaume collection. This collection is characterized by the restriction to a few artists, most of which larger groups of works can be seen. With more than 20 paintings Pierre- Auguste Renoir is represented by the collection of Walter / Guillaume particularly extensive in the museum. Below are beside some still lifes and portraits of women and the well-known works of Claude Renoir as a clown and Young ladies at the piano. A landscape painting by Alfred Sisley rounds off the collection of impressionist art from the museum.

From the subsequent generation of artists is in the museum next to a South Sea Landscape by Paul Gauguin a work block of 13 works of Paul Cézanne to see. This includes both still lifes, as well as landscapes and portraits. With nine paintings is the father of naive painting, Henri Rousseau 's work, also well represented in the museum. Among these are the well-known works such as The Wedding and The carts of the Père Juniet.

Another focus of the collection Walter / Guillaume are artists from the first decades of the 20th century. Particularly extensive here are the groups of works by Andre Derain and Chaim Soutine with more than 20 in each work. In addition, ten paintings by Maurice Utrillo, among which there are some characteristic of the artist Parisian cityscapes. The eleven works by Pablo Picasso at the museum range from his Rose Period, Cubism work of up to images of the 1920s. In addition, the museum has five portrait works by Amedeo Modigliani, various women's portraits and interiors by Henri Matisse as well as some pictures of Marie Laurencin and a painting by Kees van Dongen.

Gallery

Alfred Sisley: Le Chemin de Montbuisson à Louveciennes

Pierre- Auguste Renoir: Claude Renoir as a clown

Paul Gauguin: Landscape

Henri Rousseau: The carts of the Père Junier

Auguste Rodin: Clemenceau

Paul Cézanne: Portrait of Madame Cézanne

Amedeo Modigliani: Paul Guillaume, Novo Pilota