Paris’ Orsay Museum : Former Rail Station a Hit in Art World

In the 12 months since the Orsay Museum of 19th-Century Art opened, more than 4 million visitors have swept under the gilded clock and into the former railway station once slated for demolition.

Among French sites, Orsay is second only to the Pompidou Center, which draws about 8.5 million visitors to its galleries, library, and music and video facilities. The new museum is a bigger draw than such established attractions as the Palace of Versailles and the Louvre.

The spacious halls hold as many as 13,000 visitors a day, and up to 22,000 on weekends, without ever seeming crowded.

The Orsay Museum opened on Dec. 9, 1986. It prides itself on exhibiting the best along with the worst of 19th-Century painting, sculpture, interior design and photography--all in the name of historical accuracy.

No ‘Moral Judgment’

“People are grateful to us for displaying as many works as possible, thus providing a general context for the 19th Century,” said Francoise Cachin, Orsay’s chief curator. “The public is capable of choosing for itself. We didn’t want to make a moral judgment or play the schoolmaster.”

Orsay boasts the priceless collection of Impressionist masterpieces that once crowded the Jeu de Paume. In airy, well-lighted galleries overlooking the Seine River, works by Renoir, Degas, Monet, Cezanne, Seurat, Gauguin and others are displayed at eye level.

But there are also the flamboyant nudes, overblown nature scenes and giant murals by painters from the Pompier School. Virtually unknown to the general public and once regarded as the worst in taste and technique, they are now enjoying a new wave of popularity after decades of neglect.

Many of Orsay’s 4,000 works were taken out of storage, dusted off and displayed for the first time in this century.

$200 Million to Build

Sculpture too has a prominent place at Orsay. The sloping central alley leading to smaller side galleries features works by Rodin, Bourdel, Degas and Maillol.

But if millions continue to throng to Orsay, it’s also to see firsthand the spectacular transformation of a drafty train station into a high-tech museum.

The new Orsay Museum took more than 10 years and $200 million to build.

The original construction of the hotel-station complex began in 1898 and ended in time to house and shuttle visitors to the 1900 World’s Fair. The glass-and-steel structure masked by hundreds of tons of stone has long been considered a masterpiece of Beaux Arts architecture.

Saved by Pompidou

But the building was nearly razed. After the French Railroad took it out of service in 1961, Orsay was used as a film set and auction house. In 1973 then-President Georges Pompidou saved it from destruction by classifying it a historic monument.

Escalators take visitors up four flights to a breathtaking vantage point right under the 105-foot-high vaulted ceiling adorned with 940 beige and green plaster-of-Paris posies. With the arched windows and huge gilded time clock, it is easy to imagine commuters running to catch trains.

Orsay also has stunning art nouveau furniture, glassware, jewelry, sterling silver tea sets and a rare collection of the glass and iron Art Deco designs by Hector Guimard, which adorn the Paris Metro.

There are also dozens of temporary mini-shows on subjects as diverse as Mary Cassatt, Van Gogh in Paris, Degas’ drawings and the Restoration of Primitive Film. In 1987, there were 21 such shows.

Orsay has cashed in on its unique setting in more ways than one. In recent months, it has become the most desirable spot to throw private parties. Banks, industrial firms and publishing houses have competed for the 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. cocktail hour at $18,000. Full-course dinner sittings cost $72,000.