The Petit Palais Museum in Paris
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Petit Palais Museum
The Petit Palais, meaning
“Small Palace” in French, is a museum in
Paris which was built for the Universal
Exhibition in 1900. The building was
designed by Charles Girault. Currently, the
structure functions as the City of Paris
Museum of Fine Arts or, as the locals call
it, the Musee Des Beaux-Arts
De La Ville de Paris.
The Petit Palais is similar to the Grand
Palais in layout. At the center is a
circular courtyard with a beautifully
landscaped garden. The palace’s ionic
columns, dome and grand porch mirrors the
same elements of the Invalides which stand
proudly across the river. The tympanum
carved on the building’s pediment features
the work of talented sculptor Jean Antoine
Injalbert.
The museum’s collection is exhibited in two
sections, the Dutuit Collection and the Tuck
Collection.
The first is made up of art
objects, drawings and paintings from the
Renaissance and medieval periods. On the
other hand, the Tuck Collection is made up
of works by French artists including Eugene
Delacroix, Jean Ingres and Gustave Courbet.
It also features a wide collection of
furniture from the
18th century.
A lot of other buildings have been modeled
after the Petit Palais. These buildings
include the Museo
de Bellas Artes in Santiago,
Chile and Belgium’s Royal Museum for Central
Africa in Brussels.