#603 Paris: comparative anatomy museum at the Jardin des Plantes

Please see the previous blog for more information about this post.

The comparative anatomy museum in Paris - Galerie de Paleontologie
et d'Anatomie Comparee - consists of two floors in an enormous building in the Jardin de Plantes, and is unlike any natural history museum

 I've ever visited . . . I could spend weeks there and I will return.

I've never been so overwhelmed entering a room . . . there were hundreds of skeletons identified by hand-written cards from the 1800s.  There were skeletons everywhere in the huge atrium . . .  a dizzying array of skeletons of every shape and size.   The academic ambiance was perfect for a figurative sculptor and collector of bones
and skeletons such as myself.  Osteology has long been
an interest and passion . . . I was in heaven!

Every imaginable species could be seen . . . including dinosaurs.  Glass cases and cabinets
filled with an astonishing array of bird skeletons and more.  I took hundreds of pictures and made
many sketches with notes.  Only a few students were there on the day we attended and as the image
shows below, I was able to sit on the floor and get great photographic angles of the specimens.

The collections derive from the great expeditions of naturalists of the 18th and 19th centuries as well as specimens

 from the zoo (menagerie) on the grounds of the Jardin des Plantes which we had visited the day before. 

 Barye, Bugatti, and Fremiet had worked in not only the zoo, but in the vast room we were standing in.

 I'm concluding every blog about our trip to Paris last month with a glimpse of life in the beautiful city.

The first photo depicts Sacre Coure on the bluff of Montmarte, looking north from the Musee d'Orsay on a rainy day.
We stayed in Montmarte . . . our hotel room overlooked Sacre Coure and the next photo, shows the view from our room.
 Our mornings started with coffee, croissant, and fruit in the room . . . the day's adventure before us.

Go to the BLOG INDEX on the right for more information.

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish

#601: Paris: Barye, Fremiet and the Natural History Museum of Paris

While in Paris last month, Trish and I spent most of the three-week stay in museums and tracking down the 

notable sculpture and monuments that the beautiful city is famous for.   While all art viewed was meaningful, 

we concentrated on Greek sculpture and art from antiquity and importantly,

 the work of the French Animaliers of the 19th and early 20th centuries. 

The focus of this blog is the Natural History Museum of Paris and two important Parisian born Animaliers:

 Antoine-Louis Barye (1796 - 1875}, and Emmanuel Fremiet ( 1824 - 1910).  Historians regard the Romantic sculptor Barye, as having the premier position as the finest and most original in the field of animal bronzes and I'll return 

to his sculpture in upcoming posts.   Additional info can be obtained by going to Post #593, Dec. 21, 2014.  

Many books have been written about his work and much can be learned about him by going online.    

Below, are sculptures by Barye.

The Jardin des Plantes or great botanical gardens of Paris
was founded in 1626 and is located on the left bank in a
complex that includes the Natural History Museum of Paris,
the zoo or menagerie of wild animals,  the Museum of Comparative Anatomy, Museums of Evolution,
of Palenontology, of Entomology, Museum of Zoology,  

and other libraries, laboratories, exhibits, and lecture rooms.
The Jardin was high on our list of places to visit and we spent several days there.  Had we spent the entire three weeks,
we would have only seen a small part of it. 

More about the zoo in next Wednesday's post.

Both Barye and Fremiet were frequent visitors to the Jardin des Plantes and the Natural History Museum of Paris 

and spent many hours, studying and modeling their sculpture from zoo animals, skeletons, and taxidermy.   

During the last years of his life, Barye was professor of animal drawing at the Natural History Museum of Paris 

and was succeeded by Fremiet in 1892, several years after Barye's death.  

Fremiet's most famous sculpture is the gilded "Joan of Arc", erected in the Place des Pyramides in Paris. 

 My personal favorite is his sculpture of an elephant in front of the Musee d'Orsay. 

Below, are images.

   

As in previous posts about last month's trip to Paris,
I'm concluding the blog with a glimpse
of life in the elegant and inspiring city.

Travel in the winter and off-season definitely has advantages.
We took a boat ride on the Seine on a rainy day

 and were the only passengers on the boat . . .
just us and the bartender, captain, and mate! 

Below, are images taken from the railing.

Go to the BLOG INDEX on the right for more information. 

Blog, text, photos, drawings, and sculpture . . . © Sandy Scott and Trish