Sunday 8 July 2007

Musee d'Orsay


Today was a day for art. First up was the Musee d'Orsay, I went here last year when I was visiting Paris, and I have to say that it is awesome. I really like the impressionists though so for me it is so much more impressive than the Louvre. If you do plan on visiting I would try and arrive before 11am because after that the entrance line just goes crazy. I managed to arrive about 5 minutes before the hordes, so it wasn't too bad for me. This was the line when I got out of the gallery, it is hard to tell in the picture but the line stretches almost all the way to the rhinoceros and winds its way back past the poster almost to the road. And it doesn't move that fast! Once you are inside though there is not much of a crowd. At least not until you get to the impressionist gallery, where they have all the famous paintings by Monet, Renoir, Van Gogh etc. I think a lot of people only come here for that gallery and so it is packed. My favourite piece there isn't in these packed galleries, though the Monets and stuff are fantastic, it is by itself on the lower levels. It's a sculpture by Pompon, but I couldn't find anything else that he's done, I guess he peaked with the bear.


The Musee d'Orsay is actually in a converted train station, I don't see why the train stations in use nowadays have to look so dodgy then. I guess if you cover anything with marble and put a whole stack of art in it, it's going to look pretty good.



Some of the pieces were a bit random, like the following beds and chairs, I'm not sure what was going on there. I guess the curator really likes furniture.












And the last picture I'll leave you with was in the Symbolism gallery, if anyone can tell me what it means and where the symbols are that would be great.

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