Le Petit Palais

September 16, 2015

There are a couple of great things about the Petit Palais -- it's a beautiful building (inside and out), and it's free! (the permanent collection, that is).  It's not the d'Orsay, the Louvre, or even the Orangerie, but I thought the quality of the collection was quite good, overall.

There are other free museums in Paris, most notably (to me) the Carnavalet Museum in the Marais, which I visited twice last year.

Here are some views of the interior:

I encountered these two impressive works by Courbet, Les Demoiselles des bords de la Seine (Young Ladies on the Banks of the Seine) and Le Sommeil (Sleep), which were scandalous in their day -- the first because the two women were seen as prostitutes (the one in the foreground is in her underclothes):

I also liked Mary Cassatt's portrait of her sister:

The following is believed to be a portrait of the artist's wife, who was also a painter (Jan Molenaer and Judith Leyster, respectively, late 17th century Dutch).  (Apparently the attribution is uncertain.)

Here is a non-controversial, bucolic scene by Courbet:

Below is a small section of a much larger painting depicting the departure of the prodigal son.  I very much liked the detail of the man helping the little dog out of the water (not mentioned in the commentary):

More architectural details -- a beautiful staircase!

Finally, there are very nice gardens in the center courtyard:

My guidebook described this museum as a good place to go if it's raining... I consider it worth a visit even if it's not raining!