Category Archives: Art Gallery

Wing of the Deer Gallery, Palace of Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne, France

The construction of the Château de Fontainebleau and its successive expansions bear witness to the passion of the kings of France for hunting and their need to have a prestigious setting to accommodate the Court and their distinguished guests for stays devoted to their favorite leisure activity. The Deer Gallery and the Hunting Apartment, through the representation of the large hunting estates under Henry IV and the hunts of Louis XV, painted by Oudry, illustrate the decorations of the castle on the theme of hunting. The Chasses apartment (also known as the “Prince Imperial apartment” from 1856 to 1868) overlooks the Oval courtyard and forms a link with the Diana gallery. The Queen’s staircase and the Hunting apartment, where the Imperial Prince stayed, have displayed since 1835 the large cartoons of the tapestries of the so-called Hunting hangings of Louis XV, painted by J. B. Oudry. Eight of the nine…

Galerie Francois I, Palace of Fontainebleau, Seine-et-Marne, France

The François-I gallery is a large ceremonial gallery located on the first floor of the royal castle of Fontainebleau. Built between 1528 and 1530, the Galerie Francois I measures approximately 60 meters long and 6 meters wide, and was once a covered bridge with openings on both sides. The Gallery links the apartments of Francis to the Chapel of the Trinity. King Francis I had it built and decorated in order to connect his apartments to the Trinity Chapel. He kept the keys and showed it to his distinguished guests. The Galerie Francois I, the first great gallery in France and the origination of the Renaissance style in France, the gallery is lined with frescoes by Rosso Fiorentino, made 1522-40 and framed in carved stucco. The intervention in the 1530s of the Italian artists Rosso Fiorentino and Le Primatice made this gallery the most representative decorative ensemble of the first…

Guide Tour of Palazzo Vecchio, Florence, Italy

The Palazzo Vecchio is the town hall of Florence, Palazzo Vecchio has been the symbol of the civic power of Florence for over seven centuries. The Palazzo Vecchio overlooks the Piazza della Signoria, which holds a copy of Michelangelo’s David statue, and the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi. It represents the best synthesis of the city’s fourteenth- century civil architecture and is one of the most famous civic buildings in the world. Originally called Palazzo dei Priori, built between the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth to house the city’s supreme governing body, the Priori delle Arti and the Gonfalonier of Justice. it was later identified in the 15th century as Palazzo della Signoria, from the name of the main body of the Republic of Florence; in 1540 it became the “Palazzo Ducale”, when Duke Cosimo I de ‘Medici made it…

Guide Tour of Louvre Museum, Paris, France

The Louvre is the world’s most-visited museum, and a historic landmark in Paris, France. The Louvre Museum is a Parisian art and archeology museum housed in the former royal palace of the Louvre. Opened in 1793, it is one of the largest and richest museums in the world, but also the busiest with nearly 9 million visitors a year. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. The Louvre Palace houses the largest museum in the world. The Musée du Louvre contains more than 380,000 objects and displays 35,000 works of art in eight curatorial departments with more than 60,600 square metres dedicated to the permanent collection. The Louvre exhibits sculptures, objets d’art, paintings, drawings, and archaeological finds. The Louvre Museum presents very varied collections, with a large part devoted to the art and civilizations of Antiquity:…

Guide Tour of Cognacq-Jay Museum, Paris, France

The Cognacq-Jay Museum is a municipal museum of the City of Paris presenting a collection of 18th century works and art objects from the legacy of Ernest Cognacq. The museum’s collection was formed between 1900–1925 by Théodore-Ernest Cognacq (1839–1928) and his wife Marie-Louise Jaÿ (1838–1925), founders of La Samaritaine department store. The museum houses over 1,200 objects including paintings, sculptures, drawings, furniture and decorative objects. It is one of the fourteen museums of the City of Paris managed since January 1, 2013 by the public administrative establishment Paris Musées. When this passionate collector died in 1928, this invaluable collection of paintings, furniture and other artifacts was bequeathed to the City of Paris. Ernest Cognacq did not bequeath his entire collection to his own home but had chosen to present a selection of 18th century pieces in a building independent of his living space in order to reconstruct, following the model…

Guide Tour of Musée National Picasso, Paris, France

The Picasso Museum is the French national museum dedicated to the life and work of Pablo Picasso and the artists who were linked to him. The museum collection includes more than 5,000 works of art (paintings, sculptures, drawings, ceramics, prints, engravings and notebooks) and tens of thousands of archived pieces from Picasso’s personal repository, including the artist’s photographic archive, personal papers, correspondence, and author manuscripts. The Musée Picasso is an art gallery located in the Hôtel Salé in rue de Thorigny, in the Marais district of Paris, France. The Picasso Museum opened in Paris in 1985 with a total of 228 paintings, 149 sculptures, and nearly 3,100 drawings and engravings. The building underwent extensive renovations prior to the museum’s opening, and in 2009 it closed for a major expansion, and the museum reopen in 2014. The museum located within the entirely renovated Hotel Salé, erected in the 17th century and…

Guide Tour of Pompidou Centre, Paris, France

Pompidou Centre is a multidisciplinary establishment born from the will of President Georges Pompidou, a great lover of modern art, to create in the heart of Paris an original cultural institution entirely dedicated to modern and contemporary creation where the visual arts would rub shoulders with books, drawing, music, performing arts, activities for young audiences, as well as cinema. Pompidou Centre is located in the Saint-Merri district, in the Beaubourg area of the 4th arrondissement of Paris, near Les Halles, rue Montorgueil, and the Marais. It is named after Georges Pompidou, the President of France from 1969 to 1974 who commissioned the building, and was officially opened on 31 January 1977 by President Valéry Giscard d’Estaing. The Centre Pompidou is a complex building and was designed in the style of high-tech architecture by the architectural team of Richard Rogers, Su Rogers, Renzo Piano, along with Gianfranco Franchini. The Centre Pompidou…

Guide Tour of National Eugene-Delacroix Museum, Paris, France

The Musée national Eugène Delacroix is an art museum dedicated to painter Eugène Delacroix. At this dedicated museum you can explore the great French painter’s life, his artwork, and his studio. On display are many of Delacroix’s early works including small oil paintings, pastels, and sketches. Delacroix (1798 – 1863) is regarded as the leader of the French Romantic movement in art. He took his inspiration from Rubens and Venetian Renaissance painters who focused on bold colors, sensuality, and a sense of movement in their works. His most famous painting, “Liberty Leading the People”, which hangs in the Louvre-Lens museum in northern France. The Delacroix museum is a unique place. Artist’s house and place of memory, created in homage to Delacroix by the greatest artists of the 1920s – Maurice Denis, Paul Signac, Édouard Vuillard, Ker-Xavier Roussel. Located in the heart of Paris, in the former apartment and studio of…

Guide Tour of Beaux-Arts de Paris, France

The National School of Fine Arts of Paris is a French grande école whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. Beaux-Arts de Paris, descendant of the Royal Academies of Painting and Sculpture, is both a teaching institution and conservator of 450,000 works of art, from the ancient to the contemporary. The school counts two exhibition spaces, a publishing house, and a library of contemporary art. The l’École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris are both a place of training and artistic experimentation, exhibitions and conservation of historical and contemporary collections and a publishing house. Heir to the Royal Academies of Painting and Sculpture founded in the 17th century by Louis XIV, the National School of Fine Arts, placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture, has the primary vocation of training high-level artists. It…

Guide Tour of Rodin Museum, Paris, France

The Rodin Museum is a museum ensuring since 1919 the conservation and dissemination of the work of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). It has two sites: the Hôtel Biron and surrounding grounds in central Paris, as well as just outside Paris at Rodin’s old home, the Villa des Brillants at Meudon, Hauts-de-Seine. The establishment maintains a collection made up of nearly 6,800 sculptures, 8,000 drawings, 10,000 old photographs and 8,000 other works of art. With 700,000 visitors per year, the Rodin Museum is one of the most important French museums. The Musée Rodin in Paris, France, is a museum that was opened in 1919, primarily dedicated to the works of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. Situated in the heart of Paris, the Musée Rodin benefits from an exceptional location a few steps from the Eiffel Tower and the Invalides. Comprising an 18th-century mansion and a sculpture garden which covers some 3 hectares…

Guide Tour of Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

The Musée d’Orsay is a museum in Paris, multidisciplinary museum exhibiting the richest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings in the world in the former Gare d’Orsay in Paris. Its collections present Western art from 1848 to 1914, in all its diversity: painting, sculpture, decorative arts, graphic art, photography, architecture, etc. It is one of the largest museums in Europe for this period. Located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris along the left bank of the Seine, overlooking the Édouard-Glissant promenade, it is housed in the former Gare d’Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built by Victor Laloux from 1898 to 1900 and redeveloped in museum by decision of the President of the Republic Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, and inaugurated for the 1900 Universal Exposition. Internationally renowned for its rich collection of Impressionist art, its collections represent all expressive forms, from painting to architecture, as well as sculpture, the decorative arts and…

Guide Tour of the Jacquemart-André Museum, Paris, France

The Musée Jacquemart-André is a private museum located at 158 Boulevard Haussmann in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. The museum was created from the private home of Édouard André (1833–1894) and Nélie Jacquemart (1841–1912) to display the art they collected during their lives. Owned by the Institut de France, it has been managed by Culturespaces since 1996. The Jacquemart-André Museum is a museum in a former private palace in Paris. The Jacquemart André Museum offers visitors the chance to head back in time to one of Paris’ golden ages, and often compared to the Frick Collection in New York, it has maintained its mansion atmosphere, which makes it unique in Paris. Discover extraordinary art master works inside of one of the finest bourgeoise museums of the 19 th century. Inaugurated in 1876, this museum lets visitors discover 19th century living areas: ceremonial rooms, monumental stairways, winter garden, private apartments and…

Guide Tour of Gustave-Moreau Museum, Paris, France

The Gustave-Moreau Museum is a national museum located at 14, rue Catherine de La Rochefoucauld, in Paris 9th, dedicated to the works of Symbolist painter Gustave Moreau. The museum keeps a total of around 14,000 works. Most of his studio collection is exhibited there, nearly 850 of his paintings or cartoons, 350 of his watercolours, more than 13,000 drawings and tracings, 15 wax sculptures. The museum was originally Moreau’s dwelling, transformed by his 1895 decision into a studio and museum of his work with his apartment remaining on the first floor, bequeathed by the artist to the French State in 1897 for that his work be preserved and presented there. Today the museum contains Moreau’s drawings, paintings, watercolors, and sculptures. The building has three floors. Of the six small rooms on the ground floor overlooking a garden, four rooms are filled with drawings and sketches, one of which is devoted…

Guide Tour of Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, Paris, France

The Fondation Cartier pour l’Art Contemporain, is a contemporary art museum located at 261 boulevard Raspail in the 14th arrondissement of Paris. The Cartier Foundation is an exhibition and creation space for artists, and a meeting place with the public through the organization of conferences, concerts, and shows related to temporary exhibitions. Initiated in 1984 by Alain Dominique Perrin, President of Cartier International at the time, on a suggestion by the artist César, and directed by Hervé Chandès, a private institution entirely devoted to contemporary art, the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain is a unique example of corporate philanthropy in France. Formerly located in Jouy-en-Josas (Yvelines), since moving to Paris in 1994, the Fondation Cartier has been housed in an airy building filled with light that was designed by the architect Jean Nouvel. In this unique setting, exhibitions, conferences and artistic productions come to life. A place where art and…

Guide Tour of Louis Vuitton Foundation, Paris, France

The Louis-Vuitton Corporate Foundation, is a new space that opens up dialogue with a wide audience and offers artists and intellectuals a platform for debate and reflection.. The building object of the foundation is a museum, designed by the American architect Frank Gehry, located in the Jardin d’acclimatation, in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris. It is particularly devoted to modern art and contemporary art. Driven by a mission of general interest, the Foundation is committed to making art and culture accessible to all. In order to promote artistic creation on a national and international level, it relies on temporary exhibitions of modern and contemporary art, presentations of works from its collection, commissions from artists, as well as multidisciplinary events (concerts, performances, conferences, screenings, dance, etc.). The Foundation anchors its commitment to current creation in a historical perspective. In 2001, Bernard Arnault entrusted Frank Gehry with the project of designing…

Guide Tour of Marmottan Monet Museum, Paris, France

The Marmottan Monet Museum, located in the 16th arrondissement of Paris near the Ranelagh garden, is a fine arts museum located in Paris. In particular, it presents a collection of works of art and paintings from the First Empire, as well as works by impressionist painters, including the largest collection in the world of works by Claude Monet. Musée Marmottan Monet features over three hundred Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings by Claude Monet, including his 1872 Impression, Sunrise. Marmottan Museum’s fame is the result of a donation in 1966 by Michel Monet, Claude’s second son and only heir. The Musée Marmottan Monet opened its spaces to Impressionism in 1940, when it became home to Monet’s iconic Impression, Sunrise. This painting, which has gone down in history for inspiring the name of the movement, was the foundation stone of the Museum’s Impressionist collections. In 1966 came another major event in the life…

Guide Tour of Museum of Modern Art in Paris, France

The Museum of Modern Art in Paris (Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, MAM Paris), is a major municipal museum dedicated to modern and contemporary art of the 20th and 21st centuries, presents the municipal collection of modern and contemporary art since Fauvism, rich in more than 15,000 works, mainly focused on artistic movements linked to the capital and more recently on the European art scene. Located between the Champs-Elysées and the Eiffel Tower, the art museum occupies the east wing of the Palais de Tokyo, an exceptional emblematic palace of the architecture of the 1930s. The west wing of the palace, which belongs to the State, is also devoted to contemporary creation in all its forms. The museum, inaugurated in 1961, reopened on February 2, 2006, after a period of renovation, with an exhibition devoted to Pierre Bonnard. It is one of the fourteen museums of the city of Paris…

City of Architecture and Heritage, Paris, France

The City of Architecture and Heritage (French: Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine) is a museum of architecture and monumental sculpture located in the Palais de Chaillot (Trocadéro), in Paris, France. Its permanent collection is also known as Musée des Monuments Français (Museum of French Monuments). It was first established in 1879 by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc. The museum has been renovated in 2007 and covers 9,000 square meters of gallery space. Alongside temporary exhibitions, it is made of three permanent exhibits. History The heritage Cité de l’architecture arises from the initial merger of three institutions, according to its statutes from the decree n o 2004-683 of 9 July 2004, codified in Articles R. 142-1 and following of the heritage code: The Museum of French Monuments, whose origin goes back to the museum of comparative sculpture created in 1879 by Viollet-le-Duc. It brings together the collections of models, but also moldings, murals…

The Broad museum, Los Angeles, United States

The Broad is a contemporary art museum on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles. Opened since 2015, the Broad makes its collection of contemporary art from the 1950s to the present accessible to the widest possible audience by presenting exhibitions and operating a lending program to art museums and galleries worldwide. The museum is named for philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad, who financed the $140 million building which houses the Broad art collections. Designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro in collaboration with Gensler. The Broad is home to 2,000 works of art in the Broad collection, which is one of the world’s leading collections of postwar and contemporary art. By actively building a dynamic collection that features in-depth representations of influential contemporary artists and by advancing education and engagement through exhibitions and diverse public programming, the museum enriches, provokes, inspires, and fosters appreciation of art of our time. The museum…

The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, California, United States

The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Gardens (short as The Huntington), is a collections-based educational and research institution established by Henry E. Huntington (1850–1927) and Arabella Huntington (1851–1924) and located in San Marino, California, United States. The Huntington is a research and cultural center surrounded by 120 acres spread across 12 specialized gardens. Originally the private estate of railroad magnate Henry Huntington, it is one of Southern California’s must-see cultural destinations with magnificent collections of rare books, manuscripts, and famous works of art including Gainsborough’s “The Blue Boy,” Mary Cassatt’s “Breakfast in Bed,” a Gutenberg Bible, an illuminated manuscript of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, and a First Folio edition of Shakespeare. The main library, which holds more than six million items—much of it open only to researchers. Some of its most notable holdings, among them a Gutenberg Bible and the earliest known edition of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, are…

J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, United States

The J. Paul Getty Museum, include the Getty Center and the Getty Villa, is located in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and features pre-20th-century European paintings, drawings, illuminated manuscripts, sculpture, decorative arts, and photographs from the inception of photography through present day from all over the world. The original Getty museum, the Getty Villa, is located in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles and displays art from Ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria. The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center features works of art dating from the eighth through the twenty-first century, showcased against a backdrop of dramatic architecture, tranquil gardens, and breathtaking views of Los Angeles. The collection includes European paintings, drawings, sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, decorative arts, and European, Asian, and American photographs. The Getty Center, in Los Angeles, California, is a campus of the Getty Museum and other programs of the Getty Trust. The $1.3…

The Getty Villa, Los Angeles, California, United States

The Getty Villa is at the easterly end of the Malibu coast in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States. One of two campuses of the J. Paul Getty Museum, the Getty Villa is an educational center and museum dedicated to the study of the arts and cultures of ancient Greece, Rome, and Etruria. The collection has 44,000 Greek, Roman, and Etruscan antiquities dating from 6,500 BC to 400 AD, including the Lansdowne Heracles and the Victorious Youth. In 1954, oil tycoon J. Paul Getty opened a gallery adjacent to his home in Pacific Palisades. Quickly running out of room, he built a second museum, the Getty Villa, on the property down the hill from the original gallery. The Getty Villa is a re-creation of a Roman country house based on ancient examples—and the original home of the Getty Museum. The Getty Villa is modeled after the…

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California, United States

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). Committed to showcasing a multitude of art histories, LACMA exhibits and interprets works of art from new and unexpected points of view that are informed by the region’s rich cultural heritage and diverse population. LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States, with a collection of more than 147,000 objects that illuminate 6,000 years of artistic expression across the globe. It attracts nearly a million visitors annually. It is extremely famous and is widely known across the country. It’s collection holds works spanning the history of art from ancient times to the present. In addition to art exhibits, the museum features film and concert series. LACMA’s mission…

Design Museum of Barcelona, Spain

Barcelona Design Museum (Catalan: Museu del Disseny de Barcelona), is a new center of Barcelona’s Institute of Culture, which works to promote better understanding and good use of the design world, acting as a museum and laboratory. It focuses on 4 branches or design disciplines: space design, product design, information design and fashion. The Design Museum of Barcelona is a museum that opened in December 2014, depending on the Institute of Culture of Barcelona, which originates from the integration of the collections of the Museum of Decorative Arts, the Museum of Ceramics, the Textile and Clothing Museum and the Graphic Arts Office. The museum is located in the Design Hub Barcelona building, in Plaça de les Glòries Catalanes, sharing its headquarters with the Foment de les Arts i del Disseny (FAD) and the Barcelona Center de Disseny (BCD), two pioneering institutions in the promotion and development ofdesign in Catalonia. The…