Cities Tour Part 6: Paris, third look

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The Panthéon in Paris was built between 1758 and 1790, from designs by Jacques-Germain Soufflot, at the behest of King Louis XV; the king intended it as a church dedicated to Saint Genevieve, Paris's patron saint, whose relics were to be housed in the church. Neither Soufflot nor Louis XV lived to see the church completed.

By the time the construction was finished, the French Revolution had started; the National Constituent Assembly voted in 1791 to transform the Church of Saint Genevieve into a mausoleum for the remains of distinguished French citizens, modeled on the Pantheon in Rome which had been used in this way since the 17th century. --Wikipedia

To Diderot and the Encyclopaedists by Alphonse Terroir between 1921 and 1925

Monument to Jean-Jacques Rousseau by Albert Bartholomé between 1907 and 1912

To the Unknown Heroes Who Gave Their Lives for France by Louis-Henri Bouchard between 1913 and 1920

by Laurent Honoré Marqueste 1903

To the Memory of the Artists Whose Names Have Been Lost by Paul Landowski between 1912 and 1914

The Panthéon contains the tomb of François-Marie Arouet, (21 November 1694 – 30 May 1778), known by his pen name Voltaire. He was a French Enlightenment writer, philosopher, satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit and his criticism of Christianity (especially of the Catholic Church) and of slavery, Voltaire was an advocate of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state. --Wikipedia

Sculpture of French philosopher Voltaire above his tomb by Jean-Antoine Houdon

François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 1840 – 17 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, and deeply pocketed surface in clay. He is known for such sculptures as The Thinker, Monument to Balzac, The Kiss, The Burghers of Calais, and The Gates of Hell. --Wikipedia

The Thinker, originally conceived around 1880 as part of The Gates of Hell

The Kiss 1888 to 1898, cast by Alex Rudier 1934

Madame Roll 1887

Victor Hugo 1883

The Musée d'Orsay is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built from 1898 to 1900. The museum holds mainly French art (including works by France based foreign artists) dating from 1848 to 1914, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It houses the largest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces in the world, by painters including Berthe Morisot, Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin, and van Gogh. It is one of the largest art museums in Europe.

In 2022, the museum had 3.2 million visitors, up from 1.4 million in 2021. It was the sixth-most-visited art museum in the world in 2022, and second-most-visited art museum in France, after the Louvre. --Wikipedia

This was my favorite museum in Paris. I hope that you enjoy my selection of art.

The Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin between 1880 and 1917

Anacréon by Eugène Guillaume 1851

Cornélie mère des Gracques by Jules Cavelier 1861

Joan of Arc in Domrémy by Henri Chapu 1872

I was unfamiliar with sculptor Ernest Barrias before my visit to Paris but I became quite the fan!

Louis-Ernest Barrias (13 April 1841 – 4 February 1905) was a French sculptor of the Beaux-Arts school. In 1865 Barrias won the Prix de Rome for study at the French Academy in Rome.

Barrias was involved in the decoration of the Paris Opéra and the Hôtel de la Païva in the Champs-Élysées. His work was mostly in marble, in a Romantic realist style indebted to Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux. --Wikipedia