The (; ) is an

art museum An art museum or art gallery is a building or space for the display of art, usually from the museum's own Collection (artwork), collection. It might be in public or private ownership, be accessible to all, or have restrictions in place. Although ...

in the

8th arrondissement of Paris The 8th arrondissement of Paris (''VIIIe arrondissement'') is one of the 20 Arrondissements of Paris, arrondissements of the capital city of France. In spoken French, the arrondissement is colloquially referred to as ''le huitième'' (). The ar ...

, France. Built for the 1900 Exposition Universelle ("universal exhibition"), it now houses the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts (''Musée des beaux-arts de la ville de Paris''). The is located across from the on the former Avenue Nicolas II, today Avenue Winston-Churchill. The other façades of the building face the

Seine The Seine ( , ) is a river in northern France. Its drainage basin is in the Paris Basin (a geological relative lowland) covering most of northern France. It rises at Source-Seine, northwest of Dijon in northeastern France in the Langres plat ...

and Avenue des Champs-Élysées. The is one of fourteen museums of the City of Paris that have been incorporated since 1 January 2013 in the public corporation

Paris Musées Paris Musées is a public institution that has incorporated in the same entity the 14 City of Paris Museums plus staff in charge of management, collection monitoring and production of exhibitions, events and editions, bringing together about 1000 e ...

. It has been listed since 1975 as a by the

Ministry of Culture Ministry of Culture may refer to: * Ministry of Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Youth and Sports (Albania) * Ministry of Culture (Algeria) * Ministry of Culture (Argentina) * Minister for the Arts (Australia) * Ministry of Culture (Azerbaijan)Ministry o ...

. Petit Palais, actuellement musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris

History

Design competition

In 1894 a competition was held for the 1900 Exhibition area. The

Palais de l'Industrie The Palais de l'Industrie (; Palace of Industry) was an exhibition hall located in Paris between the Seine River and the Champs-Élysées, which was erected for the Paris World Fair in 1855. This was the last of several buildings with the sam ...

from the 1855 World's Fair was considered unfitting and was to be replaced by something new for the 1900 Exhibition. Architects had the option to do what they pleased (alter, destroy, or keep) with the Palais de l'Industrie. In the end, Charles Girault won the competition and built the Petit Palais as one of the buildings that replaced the Palais de l'Industrie. The construction of the Petit Palais began on 10 October 1897 and was completed in April 1900. The total cost of the Petit Palais at the time of the construction was 400,000 pounds. In 1902, the Petit Palais officially became the Palais des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris.

Inspiration

Girault largely draws on the late 17th and early 18th century French style for the Petit Palais. Additionally his work, such as the domed central porch and the triple arcade, has many references to the stables at

Chantilly, Oise Chantilly ( , ; Picard language, Picard: ''Cantily'') is a Communes of France, commune in the Oise Departments of France, department in the Nonette (river), Valley of the Nonette in the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region of Northern Franc ...

Plan of the building

Girault's plan for the had minimal alterations from the design to the execution. The plan was original and fit perfectly in its given location. The is a trapezoid shape with its larger side as the main façade facing the . The building's shape makes a semi-circular courtyard at the center.

Architecture

The Beaux-Arts style was designed by Charles Girault, and is around an octi-circular courtyard and garden, similar to the . Its

ionic columns The Ionic order is one of the three canonic orders of classical architecture, the other two being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two lesser orders: the Tuscan (a plainer Doric), and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite ...

, grand porch, and dome echo those of the

Invalides The Hôtel des Invalides (; ), commonly called (; ), is a complex of buildings in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France, containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and an old sold ...

across the river. The tympanum depicting the city of Paris surrounded by muses is the work of sculptor

Jean Antoine Injalbert Jean-Antoine Injalbert (; 3 February 1845 – 20 January 1933) was a French sculptor. Life The son of a stonemason, Injalbert was a pupil of Augustin-Alexandre Dumont and won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1874. At the Exposition Universelle ( ...

. The was built to be a lasting building that would become a permanent fine arts museum after the exhibition. The materials of the building—stone, steel and concrete as well as the decoration were to demonstrate that the was built to be enduring.

Exterior

Main façade

The main façade of the building faces the . The focal point of the façade is the central entrance: "a central archway set in an archivolt topped by a dome and reached by a broad set of steps". Two wings flank the main entrance. These wings, continuing to the end (corner) pavilions, are embellished with free-standing columns that frame the tall windows.

Pavilions

The exterior of the pavilions are embellished with arched windows from the side around to the rear façades. These grand windows provide side lighting for the outer three galleries of the interior museum.

Decoration

The exterior of the Petit Palais was embellished with many contemporary sculptures. Several famous sculptors at the time, such as Convers, Desvergens, Fagel, Ferrary, Hugues, Injalbert and Peynot, worked on the exterior decoration of the building.

Interior

Courtyard

France Paris Petit Palais Jardin interieur 04

The trapezoidal shape of the Petit Palace forms an open area at the centre of the building. This enclosed area creates a semicircular, peristyled courtyard. The architecture of the courtyard incorporated many different architectural elements. The elegant courtyard is considered Beaux Arts style because of the "symmetrical composition" and "rich decoration in high relief". Coupled columns made of pink Vosges granite and gilt-bronze encircle the courtyard and bordering covered gallery. Although the courtyard is in the central part of the Petit Palais, one of the main structures of the Exhibition, its purpose was to provide visitors with a relaxing space apart from the busy Exposition.

Museum

The museum is split into two levels with two series of rooms running parallel and juxtaposed. The interior of the Petit Palais was designed to create exhibition spaces "suited to every aspect of a collection: the outer galleries for objects, the inner, skylit ones for paintings, the lower galleries for reserves and the entrance rotunda and main gallery for sculptures". The entrance rotunda and main gallery was especially grand. The floors were tiled with mosaics, the walls were lined with marble, whereas the dome and vaults were filled with allegorical paintings.

Exhibits

The exhibits housed in the Petit Palais during the Exhibition displayed the History of Art from the beginning until the present era. The History of French Art from 1800–1900 showed the stages of growth. The inner gallery of Petit Palais exhibited "priceless treasures in ivory, tapestry, metal work, jewelry, and porcelain gathered from the most important collections of France". The outer gallery was a collection of royal French furniture. The exhibits are divided into sections: the Dutuit Collection of

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and

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

paintings, drawings and ''objets d'art''; the Tuck Collection of 18th century furniture and the City of Paris collection of paintings. The museum displays paintings by painters such as

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (; ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), mononymously known as Rembrandt was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and Drawing, draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in ...

Rubens Sir Peter Paul Rubens ( ; ; 28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish artist and diplomat. He is considered the most influential artist of the Flemish Baroque tradition. Rubens' highly charged compositions reference erudite aspects of clas ...

Nicolas Poussin Nicolas Poussin (, , ; June 1594 – 19 November 1665) was a French painter who was a leading painter of the classical French Baroque style, although he spent most of his working life in Rome. Most of his works were on religious and mythologic ...

, Claude Gellée, Fragonard,

Hubert Robert Hubert Robert (; 22 May 1733 – 15 April 1808) was a French painter in the school of Romanticism, noted especially for his landscape paintings and capricci, or semi-fictitious picturesque depictions of ruins in Italy and of France.Jean de Cayeux ...

Greuze Jean-Baptiste Greuze (, 21 August 1725 – 4 March 1805) was a French Painting, painter of portraits, genre art, genre scenes, and history painting. Early life Greuze was born at Tournus, a market town in Burgundy (French region), Burgundy. ...

and a remarkable collection of 19th-century painting and sculpture:

Ingres Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres ( ; ; 29 August 1780 – 14 January 1867) was a French Neoclassicism, Neoclassical Painting, painter. Ingres was profoundly influenced by past artistic traditions and aspired to become the guardian of academic ...

, Géricault, Delacroix, Courbet,

Monet Oscar-Claude Monet (, ; ; 14 November 1840 – 5 December 1926) was a French painter and founder of Impressionism painting who is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it. During his ...

, Sisley,

Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( ; ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...

, Cézanne,

Danger Danger is a lack of safety and may refer Places * Danger Cave, an archaeological site in Utah * Danger Island, Great Chagos Bank, Indian Ocean * Danger Island, alternate name of Pukapuka Atoll in the Cook Islands, Pacific Ocean * Danger Island ...

, Modigliani, Carpeaux, Maillol and

Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...

, among others. There is also a relatively small but important collection of ancient Greek and Roman art and of Christian icons for which the museums's first and only 21st-century artwork was acquired in 2019 (''Les Martyrs de Libye'' by Nikola Sarić).

Reactions and influence abroad

As a whole the architecture of the 1900 Exhibition was not well received however, reactions to the Petit Palais were generally positive. Some people even claimed that the Petit Palais had the "power to educate the mind while it pleases the senses".

King Leopold II of Belgium Leopold II (9 April 1835 – 17 December 1909) was the second king of the Belgians from 1865 to 1909, and the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908. Born in Brussels as the second but eldest-surviving son of King Le ...

was very impressed with Girault's execution of the Petit Palais. This admiration started a "fruitful collaboration between monarch and architect". Girault was commissioned to build several structures including: "the

Arcade du Cinquantenaire Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated video, pinball, electro-mechanical, redemption, etc., game ** Arcade video game, a coin-operated video game ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade video game's hardware ** Arcad ...

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, extensions at the Royal Castle of Laeken, and a seafront colonnade at

Ostend Ostend ( ; ; ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke, Raversijde, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the la ...

". The Petit Palais has served as a model for other public buildings, notably for the

Royal Museum for Central Africa The Royal Museum for Central Africa (RMCA) (; ; ), communicating under the name AfricaMuseum since 2018, is an ethnography and natural history museum situated in Tervuren in Flemish Brabant, Belgium, just outside Brussels. It was originally b ...

located in

Tervuren Tervuren (; ) is a municipality in the province of Flemish Brabant, in the Flemish region of Belgium. The municipality comprises the villages of Duisburg, Tervuren proper, Vossem and Moorsel. On 1 January 2006, Tervuren had a total population o ...

, Belgium; and the Museo de Bellas Artes (National Museum of Fine Arts) in

Santiago Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's central valley and is the center of the Santiago Metropolitan Regi ...

, Chile.

Gallery

File:Le Petit Palais - Saint Jean l'évangéliste - 16ème siècle - 001.jpg,

John the Apostle John the Apostle (; ; ), also known as Saint John the Beloved and, in Eastern Orthodox Christianity, Saint John the Theologian, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. Generally listed as the youngest apostle, he ...

, detail of a 16th-century painting File:Diana Resting, by Jacob Jordaens.jpg, ''Diana Resting'', by

Jacob Jordaens Jacques (Jacob) Jordaens (19 May 1593 – 18 October 1678Jacques Jordaens
in the Netherlands Institute for Ar ...

File:Dionysos Tauros Petit Palais ADUT00069.jpg, Mask of Dionysos Tauros File:Auguste Clésinger - Bacchante. 1848.jpg, ''Woman stung by a snake'' by

Auguste Clésinger Jean-Baptiste Auguste Clésinger (22 October 1814 – 5 January 1883) was a 19th-century French sculptor and painter. Life Auguste Clésinger was born in Besançon, in the Doubs department of France. His father, Georges-Philippe, was a scu ...

File:Antoine Bourdelle (Paris 1900, musée du Petit Palais) 1.jpg, ''La naissance d'Aphrodite'' by

Antoine Bourdelle Antoine Bourdelle (; 30 October 1861 – 1 October 1929), born Émile Antoine Bordelles, was an influential and prolific French sculptor and teacher. He was a student of Auguste Rodin, a teacher of Giacometti and Henri Matisse, and an important ...

File:Le Petit Palais - Hélène Bertaux - Psyché sous l'empire du mystère - 001.jpg, ''Psyché sous l'empire du mystère'', by

Hélène Bertaux Hélène Bertaux (), born Joséphine Charlotte Hélène Pilate (4 July 1825 – 20 April 1909) was a French sculptor and women's rights advocate. Early life and career She was born in Paris and began her studies at the age of twelve with ...

File:Seine affluents Ferrary Petit Palais.jpg, ''The Seine and its tributaries'' by Désiré-Maurice Ferrary File:Paris Peynot Petit Palais.jpg, ''Coat of Arms of Paris'' by Émile Peynot File:Quatre saisons Convers Petit Palais.jpg, ''Quatre saisons'' by Louis Convers File:Entrance of the Petit Palais by night - 2022-08-06.jpg, Entrance of the Petit Palais by night in 2022

External links

*
Official Paris Musées website

— ''1900 (Exposition Universelle) and current photographs''.
Petit Palais
''Exploring the Beauty of Petit Palais: A Journey into Art and Architecture.''

References

{{Authority control Art museums and galleries in Paris Buildings and structures in Paris Exposition Universelle (1900) Buildings and structures in the 8th arrondissement of Paris Event venues established in 1900 Monuments historiques of Paris Beaux-Arts architecture in France Historicist architecture in France Neoclassical architecture in France World's fair architecture in Paris Domes 1900 establishments in France Paris Musées 20th-century architecture in France