The Petit Palais

The Grand Palais and the Petit Palais were built for the 1900 Universal Exposition and became a museum in 1902. I had been to exhibits at the Grand Palais but had never visited the Petit Palais across the street.

Grand Palais

Petit Palais

The Grand Palais and the Petit Palais are divided by Avenue Winston Churchill.

View of Grand Palais from Petit Palais

As I walked up to the Petit Palais, appropriately enough, there was a statue with this inscription:

We shall never surrender

Winston Churchill

Londres le 4 Juin 1940

Winston Churchill

So inspiring! The Petit Palais is beautiful. It is the Musée des Beaux-Arts or Museum of Fine Arts for the City of Paris.

Petit Palais

Entrance to Petit Palais

The inside was stunning. There was an inner courtyard garden, beautiful ceilings and huge halls with mosaic floors. So impressive!

Entrance Hall

Looking towards the Garden
from the Entrance Hall

Mosaic around Staircase

Entrance Looking towards the Sculpture Gallery
Stunning Mosaic Floors

And we haven't even gotten to the artwork in this building yet! The garden courtyard was beautiful with blooming trees, palm trees, flowers, beautiful columns and a café. It would be a lovely spot to sit with a cool drink in the summer.

Garden Courtyard

Garden Colonnade

Looking from the colonnade towards
the Door to the Sculpture Gallery

Colonnade

Garden Courtyard

In the late 1800s, the City of Paris commissioned many sculptures for its streets, squares, gardens and the facades of buildings, making the city an open air museum. The Sculpture Gallery includes intermediate plaster models used to make the final bronze statues. Many statues in Paris were melted down during World War II so many of the plaster models preserve their memory.

Sculpture Gallery

This sculpture below is titled "Towards the Homeland." It is of a young girl from Alsace, recognized by the wide knotted bow on her head. She is carrying her young brother in her arms and she has just crossed the border that separates Alsace from France following the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. During the war, France lost Alsace and Lorraine to Germany. The Alsatians refused to be German for patriotic reasons and Alsace and Lorraine once again became part of France after World War I.

Towards the Homeland

Another fun sculpture was Louis XIV's favorite musician, Jean-Baptiste Lully, a child prodigy. Lully was the son of a miller from Florence and worked as a kitchen waiter at the French court. He wears a chef's toque and an apron and his foot is resting on an upside-down saucepan. Notice the cabbage behind his foot.

Jean-Baptiste Lully

The City of Paris acquired the paintings and sculpture in the museum beginning in 1870. The works were either commissioned by the city or bought directly from the artists or at the Salon  exhibitions of the French Academy of Fine Arts. The collection has been augmented by gifts and donations and is quite varied.

This portrait of the actress Sarah Bernhardt in her hôtel near Parc Monceau was the talk of the town at the 1876 Salon. Isn't she elegant? It was her favorite portrait and she kept it all her life.

Sarah Bernhardt

I thought this painting by Gustave Courbet of his sister Juliette was sweet.

Juliette Courbet

This monumental painting of the marché at Les Halles really captures the hustle and bustle of what it must have been like early each morning at the market. Look at the huge orange squash and the Saint Eustache church in the backgound. The painting was the sensation of the 1895 Salon and was originally destined for the Hôtel de Ville. It was then transferred to the Petit Palais but was not on display for most of the 20th Century until it was restored in 2013.

Les Halles

Benjamin Franklin

One of my favorite sculptors in the Louvre is Jean-Antoine Houdon (1741-1828). I have always loved the sculptures of his children and his bust of Benjamin Franklin. When I went to the Louvre last month, I was so upset that his bust of Benjamin Franklin was nowhere to be found. I googled it and found the Louvre had put Ben into storage! I was so disappointed. I always visited Ben when I was at the Louvre. The bust was so realistic.

I was surprised to find this terra cotta bust modeled after Houdon's bust of Benjamin Franklin on display at the Petit Palais. It was like unexpectedly running into an old friend!

The artwork at the museum was so varied. This 1700 sedan chair was owned by the niece of Louis XIV.


Paul Delaroche painted this sweet portrait of his son, Horace, in 1838. I thought Kate would appreciate the young spaniel painted next to him.

Horace Delaroche

The collection included sculptures and paintings from the Impressionists. My favorite painting of all was Monet's "Sunset on the Seine at Lavacourt, winter effect."

Monet's Sunset

The photo doesn't do the picture justice. The colors were so beautiful and the painting reminded me of Monet's "Impression, Sunrise" at the Marmottan Museum that gave the Impressionist movement its name.

Impression, Sunrise
Marmottan Museum

Admiring the Monet

This sharply dressed man stopped to admire the Monet painting.
There were sculptures by Rodin, Renoir and Carpeaux. Who knew Renoir sculpted, too?

Torso of a Man
by Rodin

Venus Victorious
by Renoir

Ugolino and his Sons
by Carpeaux

The collection was so varied. I liked these two paintings, one from 1670 by a Dutch painter that reminded me of Vermeer and the other from 1913 of the painter's wife.

The Sweeper
by Pieter Janssens Elinga

Anna filia bella-Souvenir de la Joconde
by Georges-Daniel de Monfreid

Annette de Monfreid is painted in front of a tapestry of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in the manner of a Renaissance portrait. She is posed in the style of the Mona Lisa (la Joconde in French) with her arms crossed. Even her smile is similar to the Mona Lisa smile. The artist pays hommage to his wife with the inscription in Latin across the top and down the side: To my dear and beautiful Anna by her husband G. de Monfreid 1913. The talented artist was a painter, sculptor, engraver, ceramicist and master glass maker, and a friend and confidant of Paul Gauguin.


This post does not even touch the surface of the varied artworks at the Petit Palais. It really is a gem in the center of Paris. And admission is free. I don't know why I hadn't found my way here in prior years but I will definitely be returning.
As I left the Petit Palais, I walked past our favorite bridge, Pont Alexandre III and looked towards Les Invalides. Rain or shine, Paris is so beautiful--a feast for the eyes everywhere I turn!

Pont Alexandre III