Petit Palais description and photos - France: Paris (Topic)

Petit Palais description and photos - France: Paris. Detailed information about the attraction. Description, photographs and a map showing the nearest significant objects. The title in English is Petit Palais.

Photo and description

Small Palace, Petit Palais (like its "brother" Grand Palais) is located near the Champs Elysees on the site where the Palace of Industry, erected for the 1855 World Exhibition, was previously located. Both "brothers" were built for the next World's Fair in 1900. After its completion, the Petit Palais was given over to a museum of modern art.

On the part of the owner of the palace, the city of Paris, it was a far-sighted step. The Petit Palais building was the most modern of its era and was distinguished by its rare beauty. This reputation has pushed serious collectors to transfer paintings and sculptures here. The Dutuis brothers from Rouen handed over to the museum a collection of antiquities that they had been collecting all their lives - art objects from ancient Greece, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Flemish painting.

In the halls of the museum you can see the works of artists of the XIX century: Courbet, Monet, Sisley, Gauguin, Maillol, Renoir, Toulouse-Lautrec. In the gallery of the palace there is a separate exhibition of the "Tak collection" - a collection of paintings and sculptures donated to Petit Palais by the American philanthropist Edward Tuck and his wife Julia in 1930. The art of the 20th century is widely represented. The funds contain a rich collection of works by the Fauves and Cubists.

Petit Palais is also interesting for its rich collection of icons. For a long time, icons were not considered art in the West, since they did not participate in the development of European painting. So, the icons taken out by the white emigration to Europe most often did not find buyers. It is for this reason that the patron of the arts Roger Cabal managed, with modest funds, to collect an outstanding private collection of icons, which he presented to the museum. The collection was seriously replenished during the war in Lebanon - from there it was possible to take out and save the icons that took refuge in Petit Palais.

In 2005, the palace was thoroughly restored. Before the renovation, it was covered with a not very transparent glass dome; the courtyard was closed to visitors. The mosaics of the dome, marble floors, and frescoes have now been completely restored. The exhibition area has been expanded: five thousand square meters have been allocated for the museum's collections, and another two thousand for temporary exhibitions. The Petit Palais collection now contains 45,000 works of art.

The palace, the property of the municipality, was completely restored with funds received from the tax on residence in Paris. Now it is one of the rare free museums in the city.

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Topic: Petit Palais description and photos - France: Paris.