Every first Sunday of each month, it is a free-pass day to visit museums in Paris. For this month, we chose to visit Musée d'Orsay, one of the most famous and most beautiful museums in Paris. The building is a train station turned museum, open Tues - Suns: 9.30am - 6pm except on Thurs: 9.30am - 9.45pm. (Paris has a thing with Thursdays, musems, shopping malls and supermarkets seem to open until late and many clubs seem to have a special event/dj's.)Musée d'Orsay combines almost all types of art into one place, from paintings to sculptures, from photography to decorative arts and the architecture presented by the building of the museum itself. There are a few works that have become my very favourites:
[The Four Parts of the World Holding the Celestial Sphere]
Baron Haussmann, the prefect of Paris who gave the city the face we know today, commissioned Carpeaux to design a fountain for the Luxembourg Gardens in 1867. The sculptor chose the theme of the four parts of the world turning around the celestial sphere. Not only are the four allegories dancing in a ring, but they are also revolving on the spot. Europe scarcely touches the ground, Asia, with her long pigtail, is seen almost from the back, Africa is in a three-quarter view and America, wearing a feather headdress, is facing the spectator but her body is turned to the side. This taste for movement is one of the features of Carpeaux's art. His passionate nature was quite the contrary of Neoclassic serenity. It was not until 1874, a year before Carpeaux died, that the bronze fountain was set up on the designated site. The tangle of legs displeased the public of the time. Two of the busts exist as separate works. Carpeaux turned the Chinese woman into a man and reproduced the statue in several different materials. The figure of Africa gave rise to a bust that Carpeaux exhibited with the inscription Why be born a slave? This reference to the abolition of slavery is also visible in the statue: America is standing on the broken chain of slavery wrapped around Africa's ankle.
Les Iles d'Or [The Golden Isles]
An exhibition of the work of Henry-Edmond Cross opened at the Druet Gallery in Paris on 21 March 1905. Emile Verhaeren, in a letter prefacing the catalogue, described the surroundings in which his friend had been living since he had joined him in the South of France: "I see the sea close by, the mountain chain of the Maures and in the distance the islands of Hyères, so beautiful that they are called the Golden Isles. […] the mountains unroll their ornamental line along the horizon and in the curve of the beaches, between the points of a succession of large capes, the fine yellow sand sparkles in the light". The poet could be describing the landscape of The Golden Isles which Cross painted in 1891-1892.
Although the subject of the canvas is indeed the islands, Cross has eliminated all picturesque elements and concentrated on the effects of light on colour. The various elements in the landscape become three large coloured bands: the sand, sea and sky.
In keeping with the Neo-impressionist technique that he had recently begun to apply, he used rounded brushstrokes of various sizes from the dabs in the foreground to the tiny dots on the horizon, adjusting the spacing to create a slight effect of perspective. The very high horizon line running across the composition is a direct reference to the Japanese art of Ukiyo-e prints.
Such a resolutely modern work could not fail to please Felix Fénéon, an ardent defender of Neo-impressionism, who bought it. The canvas was no doubt Cross' most daring work; it joined the national collections in 1947 after the first auction of the critic's collection.
Currently some parts of the museum are under the restoration until July,2007. So it will give anyone a reason to re-visit the place once all the areas are fully opened.
Source: Musée d'Orsay
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