Grand Palais

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View from the Eiffel Tower :
Grand Palais (center)
Petit Palais (right behind)

The Grand Palais is an exhibition building built for the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900 . Along with the Petit Palais opposite and the neighboring Pont Alexandre III, it represents an important architectural ensemble of the Belle Époque . After various uses, it is now used by the state museums as a gallery for temporary exhibitions.

history

Grand Palais, postcard around 1900

The Grand Palais was built between 1897 and 1900 on the also newly created avenue Nicolas II (today: avenue Winston Churchill), which connects the avenue des Champs-Élysées with the Invalides . Before that, the industrial palace built for the world exhibition of 1855 stood here. In a competition restricted to French architects in 1896, Henri-Adolphe-Auguste Deglane (1855–1931), Louis-Albert Louvet (1860–1936), Albert-Félix-Théophile Thomas (1847–1907) and Charles-Louis Girault (1851– 1932) emerged as the winner, with the latter being in charge. On May 1, 1900 , the Grand Palais was inaugurated by President Émile Loubet . During the world exhibition, the palace was to glorify “la gloire de l'Art français” (the glory of French art), as the gable inscription says.

architecture

From the outside, the stone architecture of the Grand Palais quotes the forms of the classicist Baroque in the sense of the Beaux Arts school . Divided by Ionic columns and adorned with numerous figures, the building extends over a length of about 240 meters. It is up to 44 meters high. In addition to the large main portal on Avenue Winston Churchill, the actual entrances are located at the four sloping ends of the wing buildings, with large open staircases and bronze cuboids as the crowning of the roof. The interior of the building, with more than 5000 m² of exhibition space, is a spacious civil engineering structure made of iron and glass on a cross-shaped floor plan.

Uses

In keeping with the original meaning, art exhibitions also took place in the Grand Palais after the World Exhibition of 1900, including the Salon des Indépendants founded by the Société des Artistes Indépendants . It was also the site of the Mondial de l'Automobile motor show from 1901 to 1961 . Other uses were book and antique fairs, agricultural equipment exhibitions, fashion events, concerts and circus guest performances. Also horse shows found from 1901 to 1957 and again since 2010 under the name Saut Hermès instead. In 1964, under Culture Minister André Malraux , the north wing was converted into gallery space for large international art exhibitions (e.g. FIAC ). The most successful exhibitions include the Renoir retrospective in 1985 with 868,600 visitors and the Manet exhibition in 1983 with 808,700 visitors. After a rivet on the glass roof fell during an antiques fair in June 1993 , the building was completely renovated for twelve years. Since September 1, 2005, the Grand Palais has been part of the Réunion des Musées Nationaux (National Museums). Among other things, the Palais de la Découverte science museum is here . One of the special features of the Grand Palais is a police station housed in one part of the building. Since 2006, Chanel has shown the company's catwalk collections twice a year and goes to great lengths to create huge sets. Due to the size and capacity of the Grand Palais, the Chanel shows are considered the highlight of the Paris fashion week. Since December 2012 there has been a large indoor ice rink in the Grand Palais during the Advent season. During the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024, the Grand Palais will be the venue for the fencing competitions.

Exhibitions

  • 2017: Rodin . The exposition du centenaire . Catalog.
  • 2018: Kupka . Pioneer de l'abstraction. Retrospective

  • View from the Pont Alexandre III

  • Exterior view of the roof

  • Interior view of the roof structure

  • Figure group above an entrance

  • at sunset from the Seine

literature

  • Wolfgang Friebe: Architecture of the world exhibitions. 1851 - 1970. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart et al. 1983, ISBN 3-17-007722-8 .

Web links

Commons : Grand Palais  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of equestrian sports in the Grand Palais Paris. Website of the CSI 5 * equestrian tournament "Saut Hermes"
  2. ^ Grand Palais des Glaces. In: parisinfo.com. Retrieved March 5, 2015 .
  3. ↑ When the comet strikes right in front of your feet. In: FAZ , June 29, 2017, page 11

Coordinates: 48 ° 51 ′ 58.2 "  N , 2 ° 18 ′ 45.2"  E