Musée du Luxembourg

The Musée du Luxembourg (French pronunciation: ​[myze dy lyksɑ̃buːʁ]) is a museum at 19 rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. Established in 1750, it was initially an art museum located in the east wing of the Luxembourg Palace (the matching west wing housed Ruben's Marie de' Medici cycle) and in 1818 became the first museum of contemporary art. In 1884 the museum moved into its current building, the former orangery of the Palace. The museum was taken over by the French Ministry of Culture and the French Senate in 2000, when it began to be used for temporary exhibitions, and became part of the Réunion des Musées Nationaux in 2010.[1][2]

Musée du Luxembourg
Façade of the museum
Location within Paris
Established1750
Location19 rue de Vaugirard, Paris, France
Coordinates48.8486°N 2.3340°E / 48.8486; 2.3340
TypeTemporary exhibitions
Public transit access
Websitemuseeduluxembourg.fr

History
Plan of the museum in 1923

From 1750 to 1780 it was the first public painting gallery in Paris, displaying the King's collection which included Titian's The Madonna of the Rabbit, Da Vinci's Holy Family (either The Virgin and Child with St. Anne or Virgin of the Rocks) and nearly a hundred other Old Master works now forming the nucleus of the Louvre. In 1803, it reopened showing paintings by a range of artists from Nicolas Poussin to Jacques-Louis David, and was devoted to living artists from 1818 to 1937. Much of the work first shown here has found its way into other museums of Paris including the Jeu de Paume, the Orangerie, and ultimately the Musée National d'Art Moderne and the Musée d'Orsay.

Other notable events
The Luxembourg Museum in the east wing of the Palace, c. 1848
  • In 1861, James Tissot showed The Meeting of Faust and Marguerite, which was purchased by the state for the Luxembourg Gallery.
  • The illustrator André Gill (1840–1885) was named curator of the Musée du Luxembourg on May 15, 1871, in which capacity he reassembled the scattered collections of art and reestablished the museum of sculpture. He had scarcely begun his work when it was interrupted by the upheaval associated with the Paris Commune.
  • When Ernest Hemingway paid a call on Gertude Stein at the nearby Rue de Fleurus, he stopped to see the work of the Impressionists which in 1921 were still in the Musée du Luxembourg.[3]

References
  1. "Un musée, une histoire" Archived 2014-10-29 at the Wayback Machine at the Musée du Luxembourg website.
  2. Ochterbeck 2009, p. 202.
  3. A Moveable Feast

Sources
  • (in French) Les Grands du Dessin de Press: André Gill (1840-1885) "Quand ouvrira-t-on des maisons pour imbeciles?"
  • Ochterbeck, Cynthia Clayton, editor (2009). The Green Guide Paris. Greenville, South Carolina: Michelin Maps and Guides. ISBN 9781906261375.
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