History and visit the Bourdelle Museum in Paris
The Bourdelle Museum is located at No. 18 rue Antoine Bourdelle in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. It was built on the site of apartments, shops and gardens of the French painter and sculptor Antoine Bourdelle. He lived and worked from 1885 until his death in 1929. The Museum was inaugurated in 1949. Its collections are enriched in large part by the work of Bourdelle, consisting of paintings, pastels, drawings, watercolors, sculptures … Placed 48th largest in terms of attendance, Bourdelle museum receives about forty thousand visitors each year. Since 1 January 2013, it is one of dozens of museums managed by the public administrative Paris Museums. It is accessible by public stations Falguire Metro and Gare Montparnasse.
It all began in 1885 when Antoine Bourdelle moved to No. 16 of the Impasse du Maine, where he had his apartment and studio. At the time, many artists remained in the area. Bourdelle was as close neighbor painter Eugène Carrière and sculptor Aimé-Jules Dalou. To save all his works, the creation of a museum for him was evident in the early twenties. He wanted to have his own museum as did Rodin. During the year 1928, he designed several building projects to house the museum. The latter could not be completed before his death in 1929. The following year, the land on which the house was built by the artist was sold. To prevent the spread of the collection, the patron Gabriel Cognacq bought the land, Cleopatra Bourdelle did not have the means to do so. Generous Cognacq did Cleopatra and her daughter new owners of the premises without ever claim back the money. Thanks to the tenacity of the women and especially the involvement of the Director of Fine Arts, Yvon Bizardel, the City of Paris accepted the donation of the whole composed of the field and workshops site renfermèrent about eight hundred sculptures of a thousand drawings, two hundred paintings and pastels and several boxes and manuscripts. The museum building was entrusted to the architect Henri Gautruche. The Bourdelle Museum was opened on 4 July 1949.
The museum was the subject of two extensions. The first was designed by the architect Gautruche in 1961 by the construction of the Great Hall. Designed by architect and interior designer, Michel Dufet, son of Antoine Bourdelle, the Great Hall is a vast nave of concrete, to house the monumental works in plaster Bourdelle. It was opened on the centenary of the artist. The second extension of the museum was made in 1992 by the architect Christian de Portzamparc. Stretching over an area of thousand six hundred fifty-five square meters, Portzamparc designed the new wing on four levels. A large exhibition hall, located on the ground floor hosts two important works by Bourdelle including War Memorial, the Fighters and Defenders of the Tarn-et-Garonne and the Monument to Adam Mickiewicz. The first floor is devoted to a workshop for children and a graphic arts firm. Offices conservations and documentation room occupy the top floor.
The Bourdelle museum also offers visitors the opportunity to see the apartment Bourdelle, a part remained intact or its workshops. Located in the center of the museum, they expose a large number of sculptures in wood, marble and bronze. We can also see the sculpture gardens, dedicated to the most famous bronzes Bourdelle spaces.
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Transfer the Bourdelle Museum in Paris
The Bourdelle Museum is located 16.9 kilometers from Orly Airport, 38.4 km from Roissy Charles de Gaulle Airport and 96 km from Beauvais Airport.