Paris 1900 anyone?

If you happen to be going to Paris in April of this year don't tell me I will die of jealousy! Seriously, you must visit Musee des Beaux Arts for their upcoming exhibit, le Petit Palais-Paris 1900 - La Ville Spectacle from 2 April-August 17, 2014.

"The exhibition "Paris 1900 , the City show" invites the public to relive the heyday of the French capital when it hosts the World Expo that opened in the 20th century fanfare . More than ever the city shines in the eyes of the world as the city of luxury and lifestyle . More than 600 works - paintings, art , costumes , posters, photographs , films, furniture, jewelry , sculptures objects ... - immerse visitors Petit Palais in Paris of the Belle Epoque. Technical innovations , cultural effervescence, the elegance of Paris will be staged as many mythologies of the Paris including literature and film have since ceased to convey the image around the world.
"In an inventive set design incorporating the new cinema over the course, the visitor is invited to a similar to the 51 million tourists who flocked to Paris in 1900 trip.The course organized around six " houses " begins with a section titled " Paris , showcasing the world," referring to the Universal Exhibition. On this occasion , the new Gare de Lyon , Musée d'Orsay and Invalides were built as the first line of "metropolitan" . Architectural projects , paintings , films but also quaint gift and decorative elements stored objects , remember this incredible event.Paris 1900 but cannot be reduced at the Universal Exposition: the City of Light proposed many other occasions of wonder and expenses. In luxury shops and art galleries , fans could discover the creations of the inventors of Art Nouveau , presented here in a second pavilion dedicated to the masterpieces of Gallé, Guimard, Majorelle, Mucha Lalique ...The third section devoted to Fine Arts demonstrates the centrality of the Paris art scene. At that time, all the talents converge on the capital for training in workshops, exhibit at trade fairs and sell through networks amounts of galleries. Paintings Edelfelt Finnish , Spanish or American Zuloaga Stewart, will discuss the international climate. But hooking also confronts the works of Cézanne , Monet , Renoir, Pissarro, Vuillard, with those of Gérôme, Bouguereau or Gervex glories acclaimed as the Academism as Impressionism finally recognized the Late Symbolism or figures more news like Maillol or Maurice Denis , while the triumph of art Rodin.
The visitor then discovers the creation of a triumphant Parisian fashion which showed its success upon the entry of the Universal whose monumental door was surmounted by a figure dressed by Jeanne Paquin Paris Exposition. Fashion houses in the Rue de la Paix attract a cosmopolitan and wealthy world , that imitate the working girls . The finest treasures of the Palais Galliera , such as the famous cape evening signed the couturier Worth, will be accompanied by large society portraits by La Gandara or Besnard , and evocation of the world of milliners and errand under the brush both Jean Beraud that Edgar Degas.

The last two pavilions offer an insight into the Paris entertainment : the triumphs of Sarah Bernhardt those of Yvette Guilbert, Pelléas et Mélisande at the Aiglon de Rostand , opera café- concert, circus the brothel . All illustrations bright and dark sides of a city that indulged besides in order to reinforce the idea that it remained the capital of the world and queen of pleasure. Mythical places like the Moulin Rouge or the Black Cat , become the favorite of artists such as Toulouse- Lautrec subjects. Large half- worldly Liane Pougy or the beautiful Otero hell of prostitution and drugs , the exhibition shows behind the scenes , themes that will prove to be carriers of aesthetic revolutions subjects.

If the myth of the Belle Epoque lasted until today , it is not only in contrast to the horror of the Great War who succeeded him, it is because it is based on a real cultural expansion which this exhibition wants to remind the unparalleled strength . Finest surviving architectural gem of the year 1900 in Paris , Petit Palais finally dedicated at that time leading a major exhibition , accompanied by a program of events and a complementary course in the permanent galleries of original paintings enriched collections : a fitting tribute as ever Paris had not yet proposed ." Musee des Beaux Arts 

Some of the paintings featured: 

En Soiree, Portrait of Madame Pascal Blanchard by Georges Desvallieres, 1903

 

Le Balcon by Rene Francois Xavier Prinet, 1905-6

 Un soir de grand prix au pavillion d'Armenonville by Henry Gervex, 1905

Bal Blanc by Joseph-Marius Avy, 1903