Editing Musée d'Orsay (section)

==History==
[[File:Pont Royal and Musée d'Orsay, Paris 10 July 2020.jpg|left|thumb|Musée d'Orsay as seen from the [[Pont du Carrousel]]]]
[[File:MuseedOrsayParisFrance.jpg|thumb|left|Musée d'Orsay Clock, [[Victor Laloux]], Main Hall]]
[[File:Paryż orsay.JPG|thumb|left|upright=.76|The interior of the museum]]
The museum building was originally a railway station, [[Gare d'Orsay]], located next to the Seine river. Built on the site of the Palais d'Orsay, its central location was convenient for commuting travelers.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Musee d'Orsay {{!}} History, Art, & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Musee-dOrsay|access-date=2021-03-14|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> The station was constructed for the [[Chemin de Fer de Paris à Orléans]] and finished in time for the [[Exposition Universelle (1900)|1900 Exposition Universelle]] to the design of three architects: [[Lucien Magne]], [[Émile Bénard]] and [[Victor Laloux]]. The Gare d'Orsay design was considered to be an "anachronism".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mainardi|first=Patricia|date=1987|title=Postmodern History at the Musée d'Orsay|journal=October|volume=41|pages=31–52|doi=10.2307/778328| jstor=778328 |issn=0162-2870}}</ref> Since trains were such a modern innovation for the time architects and designers alike expected a building that would embody the modern traits of this new mode of transportation. Gare d'Orsay instead gained inspiration from the past for the concept of the facade to the point of masking the cutting-edge technology within. It was the terminus for the railways of southwestern France until 1939.

By 1939 the station's short platforms had become unsuitable for the longer trains that had come to be used for mainline services. After 1939 it was used for suburban services and part of it became a mailing centre during World War II. It was then used as a set for several films, such as [[Kafka]]'s ''[[The Trial (1962 film)|The Trial]]'' adapted by [[Orson Welles]], and as a haven for the [[Madeleine Renaud|Renaud]]–[[Jean-Louis Barrault|Barrault]] Theatre Company and for auctioneers, while the [[Hôtel Drouot]] was being rebuilt.

In the 1970s work began on building a 1&nbsp;km-long tunnel under the station as part of the creation of [[RER C|line C]] of the [[Réseau Express Régional]] with a [[Musée d'Orsay station|new station]] under the old station. In 1970, permission was granted to demolish the station but [[Jacques Duhamel]], Minister for Cultural Affairs, ruled against plans to build a new hotel in its stead. The station was put on the supplementary list of Historic Monuments and finally listed in 1978. The suggestion to turn the station into a museum came from the Directorate of the [[Museum of France]]. The idea was to build a museum that would bridge the gap between the [[Musée du Louvre|Louvre]] and the [[Musée National d'Art Moderne|National Museum of Modern Art]] at the [[Centre Pompidou|Georges Pompidou Centre]]. The plan was accepted by [[Georges Pompidou]] and a study was commissioned in 1974. In 1978, a competition was organized to design the new museum. ACT Architecture, a team of three young architects (Pierre Colboc, Renaud Bardon and Jean-Paul Philippon), were awarded the contract which involved creating {{convert|20,000|m2|sqft}} of new floorspace on four floors. The construction work was carried out by [[Bouygues]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bouygues.com/us/groupe/fiches/pop_musee_orsay.html |title=Bouygues website: Musée d'Orsay |publisher=Bouygues.com |access-date=20 June 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205220921/http://www.bouygues.com/us/groupe/fiches/pop_musee_orsay.html |archive-date=5 December 2008 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> In 1981, the Italian architect [[Gae Aulenti]] was chosen to design the interior including the internal arrangement, decoration, furniture and fittings of the museum. The arrangement of the galleries she designed was elaborate and inhabited the three main levels that are under the museum's barrel vault atrium. On the main level of the building, a central nave was formed by the surrounding stone structures that were previously the building's train platforms. The central nave's structures break up the immense sculpture and gallery spaces and provided more organized units for viewing the art.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Musée d'Orsay|url=https://academic-eb-com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/levels/collegiate/article/Musée-dOrsay/57464 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2021-03-16|website=Britannica Academic}}</ref> In July 1986, the museum was ready to receive its exhibits. It took 6 months to install the 2,000 or so paintings, 600 sculptures and other works. The museum officially opened in December 1986 by then-president [[François Mitterrand]].

At any time about 3,000 art pieces are on display within Musée d'Orsay. Within the museum is a 1:100 scale model created by [[Richard Peduzzi]] of an aerial view of Paris Opera and surrounding area. This model is encapsulated underneath glass flooring that viewers walk on as they proceed through the museum. This installation allows the viewers to understand the city planning of Paris at the time, which has made this attraction one of the most popular within the museum.

Another exhibit within the museum is "A Passion for France: The Marlene and Spencer Hays Collection". This collection was donated by an Marlene and Spencer Hays, art collectors who reside in Texas and have been collecting art since the early 1970s. In 2016 the museum complied to keeping the collection of about 600 art pieces in one collection rather than dispersed throughout other exhibits. Since World War II, France has not been donated a collection of foreign art this large. The collection favors mostly post-impressionist works. Artists featured in this collection are Bonnard, Vuillard, [[Maurice Denis]], [[Odilon Redon]], [[Aristide Maillol]], [[André Derain]], [[Edgar Degas]], and [[Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Login|url=https://weblogin.asu.edu/cas/login?service=https%3A%2F%2Fezproxy-config.lib.asu.edu%2Fauth|access-date=2021-03-08|website=weblogin.asu.edu}}</ref> To make room for the art that has been donated, the Musée d'Orsay is scheduled to undergo a radical transformation over the next decade, 2020 on. This remodel is funded in part by an anonymous US patron who donated €20 million to a building project known as ''Orsay Grand Ouvert'' (Orsay Wide Open). The gift was made via the American Friends of the Musées d'Orsay et de l'Orangerie.<ref name="auto">Gareth Harris (March 6, 2020), [https://www.theartnewspaper.com/news/anonymous-eur20m-donation-kickstarts-musee-d-orsay-transformation Anonymous €20m donation kickstarts Musée d'Orsay transformation] ''[[The Art Newspaper]]''.</ref> The projected completion date is 2026, implementing new galleries and education opportunities to endorse a conductive experience.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Pogrebin|first=Robin|date=2020-03-05|title=Musée d'Orsay to Expand Spaces for Exhibitions and Education (Published 2020)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/05/arts/design/musee-dorsay-expansion.html|access-date=2021-03-08|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

{{Panorama
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|alt     = Musée d'Orsay seen from the [[Rive Droite|right bank]] of the [[Seine]] river
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}}
{{Panorama
|image   = Festival hall of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris - 2019-01-19.jpg
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|alt     = Festival hall of the Musée d'Orsay
|caption = Festival hall of the Musée d'Orsay
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The square next to the museum displays six bronze allegorical sculptural groups in a row, originally produced for the {{lang|fr|[[Exposition Universelle (1878)|Exposition Universelle]]|italic=no}}:

* ''South America'' by [[Aimé Millet]]
* ''Asia'' by [[Alexandre Falguière]]
* ''Oceania'' by [[Mathurin Moreau]]
* ''Europe'' by [[Alexandre Schoenewerk]]
* ''North America'' by [[Ernest-Eugène Hiolle]]
* ''Africa'' by [[Eugène Delaplanche]]