Trip to the Orsay Museum, A

Paris, France: Reunion Des Musees Nationaux, 2001. First Edition . Hard Back. Very Good/No Dust Jacket. 8 1/2" X 10 1/2. Celestin, Frederic - Design and Layout. 95 Pages. Bright blue laminated boards. Interior text and illustration pages are on quality paper with no apparent defects noted. In 1900, Orsay was not a museum at all. It was a huge railway station, with fifteen tracks, electric locomotives, revolutionary lifts, 12,000 tons of metal beams, and three gigantic clocks so passengers could tell the time. Everything was very modern. Since electric trains meant no more dirty smoke, the station could be splendidly decorated. There was even a grand hotel with 370 rooms for passengers to stay the night and a luxurious banquet hall. But Orsay's hour of glory did not last long. When the trains stopped coming, there was no need for a great station! At first, there was talk of pulling it down. Then it was used as a theatre, and an auction room. Little by little, the idea of turning it into a museum took on: the great museum of the nineteenth century was born. Come in! Come and explore this great art gallery! It is a lively place, full of paintings, sculptures, decors, furniture, jewellery caskets, and it has a terrace with a view over the Seine. Page Titles: The Animals Outside, Antique Style, History Painting, Courbet's World 1819-1877, Nothing in C0mmon, Wide Screen A Passion for the East, Life in the Country, Daring Like Manet 1832-1883, The Little Group of Impressionists, Blue and White Like Monet 1840-1926, Outdoors in All Weathers, Normandy Beaches, Portraits of Artists, Lovely Flesh, Renoir of the Love of Women 1841-1919, Dancing Like Degas 1834-1917, Naked in Her Bathroom, Painting the Family, Mothers, Elegant Like Carpeaux 1827-1875, In Brittany, Primitive Like Gauguin 1948-1903, Friends and Nabis, The Mediterranean, History Makers, Paris the Centre of the World, Daily Life with Bonnard 1867-1947, Apples Apples Everywhere, Solitary Like Cezanne 1838-1906, Little Dots, What a Circus, Creatures Great and Small, Powerful Like Rodin 1840-1917, Precious, Workers and Bourgeois, Working Women, A Beautiful Dream World, Uncanny, Photograpy for Everyone, and Flaming Colours.