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Musée d’Orsay: a beautiful museum

There are so many beautiful museums in Paris.  One that I became very fond of during our visits was the Musée d’Orsay, located on the Seine River (the left bank) in the 7th Arrondissement. Pictured above is Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, The Four Parts of the World Holding the Celestial Sphere, 1868-1872 (photo taken at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris).

Below are pictures of my journey on the way to the museum and of the museum itself. Also, I took many photos and videos of the artwork, and have included some of the photos in this blog, along with the name of the artist, the museum, and the title and date of the artist’s work. ¹

History of Musée d’Orsay — originally a train station

According to the Musée d’Orsay Visitor Guide, it used to be a train station that became a protected monument in the early 1970’s and eventually a historical monument, which  was  finally  converted to a museum.  The free map of the Musée d’Orsay that you can pick up from the information desk is also full of information, noting that the government decided to convert the train station to a museum in 1977 and the museum officially opened in 1986. As we were walking through the Musée d’Orsay, we learned that the train station was transformed to house art that was basically a bridge between the artwork in the Louvre and the artwork in the National Museum of Modern Art. ²

The Musée d’Orsay is separated by the Seine from Jardin des Tuileries (photos pictured above — the top photo is a statue titled La Comédie by Julien Roux, which is located in the Jardin des Tuileries). It’s about a 5 minute walk from the Jardin des Tuileries, which is an amazing garden to visit as well with beautiful sculptured statues, flowers, vegetation, shrubs, lush green lawns, and waterfalls throughout. Jardin des Tuileries has museums directly located off of it, including the Louvre and Musée de l’Orangerie. Often times, on my walk to the Musée d’Orsay, I would enter the Tuileries from the rue de Rivoli and walk through the gardens on my way to the museum.

Journey to Musée d’Orsay

On one of my visits to the Musée d’Orsay I walked from the Hotel Ascot Opera, at 2 Rue Monsigny in the 2nd Arrondissement, where I was staying. I eventually crossed a bridge on foot that went over the Seine, and stopped at La Frégate for espresso and a bite to eat.  From there it was a short walk to the Musée d’Orsay. 

It was a rainy day – perfect for touring a new museum.  Upon entering, the space was very open and long — filled with breathtaking enormous sculptures and captivating art throughout.  The museum has 5 levels (including a restaurant and café, bookstore & gift shop, and restrooms) and is packed with so much to see. I personally visited it at least 3 times and still want to go back again.

Among the artwork and sculptures, Camille Claudel’s sculpture titled “Maturity” was definitely one of the pieces of artwork that inspired me to want to know more about the sculpture and the artist. Additionally, it was my first exposure to Rodin’s “Gates of Hell” sculpture, which I eventually also saw at the Rodin museum, where many of Camille Claudel’s sculptures are also housed.

Camille Claudel’s L’Âge Mûr (Maturity)

(The following photos of Camille Claudel’s Maturity, 1895-1902, were taken at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris)

On my original visit to the Musée d’Orsay I went solo and purchased a Museum admission and the audio guide. On my second visit, I purchased the Guided tour plus a museum admission, which was nice because I got an overview of the museum and saw parts of the museum that I wasn’t even aware of on my first visit.

With the tour guide, we made it up to the 5th floor, where the big clock window was (pictured above) and the impressionists to neo-impressionist paintings (Degas, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, etc.) and Post-impressionists (Toulouse-Latrec, Van Gogh, Gauguin, etc.) were. I was amazed to see all this as I had spent my first visit taking in numerous sculptures, such as Auguste Rodin’s and Camille Claudel’s, and other paintings throughout the museum on the lower levels.

The tour lasted approximately 90 minutes and from there you can wander around on your own. Also, because I had the guided tour I didn’t have to wait in a long line outside to get into the museum — I had priority admission. On the way out, of course I stopped at the bookstore and got the Visitor Guide as well as other gifts, including a hard bound book by Christophe Averty, Musée d’Orsay (a version of this can also be found at amazon.)

At the Musée d’Orsay, one of the pieces of artwork that instantly caught my eye was Camille Claudel’s bronze sculpture titled Maturity. It shows an older woman with her arms wrapped around a man, holding onto him, and a younger woman to the right on her knees with both of her arms extended reaching out to him trying to grab his left hand. It’s a stunning piece of art that draws you in and commands you to ask questions about these three and their relationship. Pictured above is a photo I took of the sculpture at the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. Below are photos of the same sculpture that I took when I visited the Rodin Museum in Paris.

Musée Rodin

The Musée Rodin, located at 77 rue de Varenne, is another must see museum when visiting Paris. In addition to its beautiful indoor collection, there is also an exquisite outdoor sculpture garden. The enormous Gates of Hell and the Thinker can also be found outside.

Among the permanent collections housed at the Rodin Museum, are Camille Claudel’s works, which are on the first floor in room 16.

Auguste Rodin & Camille Claudel

According to the Museum Label, the statue, titled L’Âge Mûr” or “Maturity” by Camille Claudel is from the Bronze group, dated in 1897 and part of it reads as follows:

A man is torn between a young imploring woman on her knees and an elderly emaciated woman, who inexorably bears him away. This group is often thought to be autobiographical as it was designed when Camille Claudel sensed that she was losing Rodin to his long-term partner Rose Beuret…

Museum Label, Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Also, in a report to support Camille Claudel for a commission of L’Âge Mûr, the following was noted in Camille Claudel: A Life:

In a past report, I described this composition, which includes three figures representing Man at the end of his maturity, breathtakingly led by Age while he stretches a useless hand toward Youth who wants in vain to follow him. The artist made a few modifications to her maquette. Mademoiselle Claudel separated the hand of her main character from the figure of Youth to better express its distance. Furthermore, she enveloped the figure of Old Age with floating draperies, which accentuate the speed of her walk.

Armand Silvestre quoted in, Camille Claudel: A Life, by Odile Ayral-Clause

So, as I learned, Camille Claudel was not only a student of Rodin’s but she and Rodin also had a personal, romantic relationship. She also became an assistant of his:

Much has been made of Rodin’s “exploitation” of Camille’s work because of the fact that, when she became his assistant, he finished and signed a number of her sculptures

Camille Claudel: A Life, By Odile Avral-Clause

As Odile Ayral-Clause continues to explain, though, there was a system where although Rodin took credit for his assistants’ work, that work was a result of his mentoring and him imparting his skills to them as his apprentices.

According to the Rodin Museum’s website, and the Musée d’Orsay’s website, L’Age Mûr depicts the end of their relationship and shows how Camille Claudel cannot stop him from leaving her. In real life, Rodin stayed with his wife and eventually he and Claudel parted ways. She eventually ended up in an insane asylum where she remained 30 years until her death.

After seeing L’Age Mur, I was so moved by it that I did some research on Claudel and found myself wanting to know so much more about her, her family and Rodin. While she lived during a time when women were not allowed to truly cultivate and be recognized for their talents as artists, her mastery of creating works of art that equaled and exceeded the skills of the male artists of her time, including Rodin, live on through her many exceptional sculptures.

Camille Claudel Museum

I have since learned about the Camille Claudel museum in Nogent-sur-Seine and have put that on my must visit list in the future.

You stole it all! My youth, my work! Everything!

Camille Claudel, Goodreads

Camille Claudel – More Info

More information about Camille Claudel can be found on the internet. Here are some resources that I found interesting and helpful into understanding more about Camille Claudel:

• The Tragedy of Camille Claudel – a Genius who Died in an Insane Asylum, You Tube, by ObsoleteOddity
• Camille Claudel: A Life, Odile Ayral-Clause

Auguste Rodin

La Porte de L’Enfer — The Gates of Hell

An immense and awe-inspiring sculpture that drew me in at Musée d’Orsay that I also eventually saw at Rodin’s Museum was the Gates of Hell “La Porte de l’Enfer”, pictured above (at the Musée d’Orsay) and below, at the Rodin Museum, Paris. Apparently some of Rodin’s assistants, under his supervision, including Camille Claudel, also worked on studies for the Gates of Hell. The Gates of Hell, was just an enormous masterpiece that left me amazed — something that I had never imagined or experienced before. I learned that Rodin’s Gates of Hell was inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy.

While the sculpture of the Gates of Hell at Musée d’Orsay was inside, the one at the Rodin Museum was outside.

Ugolino

Another of Rodin’s sculptures at the Musée d’Orsay that was created for the Gates of Hell was called Ugolin. It’s of Ugolino from Dante’s Inferno and it shows a man on his knees surrounded by children who are lying around him. According to the audio-visual guide at the Musée d’Orsay, Ugolino is “feeding on his children’s corpses” and it notes that in Dante’s Inferno, “Dante makes a veiled allusion” to this by referring to a line in Inferno:

Then hunger proved a greater power than grief.

Dante’s Inferno, pg. 151

Le Penseur – The Thinker

Among the many sculptures at the Rodin Museum is The Thinker — Le Penseur, by Auguste Rodin, pictured below.

As I said, there are so many beautiful museums to see in Paris and Musée d’Orsay and the Rodin Museum are definitely worth the visit. If you’re planning a visit and can’t go now but would like to get an overview of the museum, the Musée d’Orsay website has videos and podcasts and numerous resources about the museum. The Musée Rodin website also has many resources available on it as well.

Art is contemplation. It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there divines the spirit of which Nature herself is animated.

Auguste Rodin

BrainyQuote

1. Please see disclaimer/terms of use on this website. ↩︎
2. This information and more details about its history can also be found in the Musee d’Orsay’s Visitor Guide, the Musée d’Orsay’s free map, and if you sign up for a Guided Tour, the tour guide will fill you in on even more. The Audio Guide is also a wonderful way to gain knowledge about the museum and its collection. ↩︎