Le Musee D’orsay

Nicole Jacobson

• Le Musee d’orsay was originally a railroad station called, Gare d’orsay. It was constructed for the Chemin de Fer de Paris a Orleans, which was an early railroad station in the early 20th century. In 1939 the railroad station became unsuitable for longer trains and it became a mailing center during World War II.

Originally a man named Eugene Henard, was supposed to design the railway station. However many people protested so they came up with another solution. They said that to design the railroad station there would be a competition. The winner of that contest was Leloux. He also designed the railway station in Tours, France

Le Musee d’orsay has art ranging from 1845-1915. It holds mainly French art. Some of the things that can be found include: paintings, drawings, photographs, and sculptures. Some of the artist include: Van Gogh, Degas, Renoir, Monet and Cezanne.

Le musee d’orsay started its conversion in 1980. It took 6 to convert the railroad station into a museum. The designers were Renaud Bardon, Pierre Colboc and Jean-Paul Philippon.

Le musee d’orsay is on the left bank of Seine, in Paris. The Seine is famous for its romantic backdrop in photographs. It is a big tourist attraction. There are boats that offer sight seeing tours within Paris.

The square of the museum displays six bronze allegorical sculptural groups in a row, originally

produced for the Exposition Universelle (1878):South America by Aimé MilletAsia by Alexandre FalguièreOceania by Mathurin MoreauEurope by Alexandre SchoenewerkNorth America by Ernest-Eugène HiolleAfrica by Eugène Delaplanche