The Petit Palais is a museum

Museum

A museum is an institution that cares for a collection of artifacts and other objects of scientific, artistic, cultural, or historical importance and makes them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary. Most large museums are located in major cities...

 in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

. Built for the Universal Exhibition

Exposition Universelle (1900)

The Exposition Universelle of 1900 was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from April 15 to November 12, 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate development into the next...

 in 1900 to Charles Girault

Charles Girault

Charles-Louis Girault was a French architect.Born in Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire, he studied with Honoré Daumet at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He received the first Prix de Rome, awarded him in 1880 on the basis of a design for a hospital for sick children along the...

's designs, it now houses the City of Paris Museum of Fine Arts (musée des beaux-arts de la ville de Paris).

Arranged around an octi-circular courtyard and garden, the palace is similar to the nearby Grand Palais

Grand Palais

This article contains material abridged and translated from the French and Spanish Wikipedia.The Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées, commonly known as the Grand Palais , is a large historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located at the Champs-Élysées in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, France...

. Its ionic

Ionic order

The Ionic order forms one of the three orders or organizational systems of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian...

 columns, grand porch and dome echo those of the Invalides across the river. The tympanum

Tympanum (architecture)

In architecture, a tympanum is the semi-circular or triangular decorative wall surface over an entrance, bounded by a lintel and arch. It often contains sculpture or other imagery or ornaments. Most architectural styles include this element....

 depicting the city of Paris surrounded by muses is the work of sculptor Jean Antoine Injalbert

Jean Antoine Injalbert

Jean Antoine Injalbert was a much-decorated French sculptor, born at Béziers.- Life :The son of a stonemason, Injalbert was a pupil of Augustin-Alexandre Dumont and won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1874. At the Exposition Universelle of 1889 he won the Grand Prix, and in 1900 was a member of...

.

The current exhibits are divided into sections: the Dutuit Collection of medieval and Renaissance

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

 paintings, drawings and objets d'art; the Tuck Collection of 18th century furniture and the City of Paris collection of paintings. The museum diplays paintings by painters such as Rembrandt, Rubens

Rubens

Rubens is often used to refer to Peter Paul Rubens , the Flemish artist.Rubens may also refer to:- People :Family name* Paul Rubens Rubens is often used to refer to Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640), the Flemish artist.Rubens may also refer to:- People :Family name* Paul Rubens (composer) Rubens is...

, Nicolas Poussin

Nicolas Poussin

Nicolas Poussin was a French painter in the classical style. His work predominantly features clarity, logic, and order, and favors line over color. His work serves as an alternative to the dominant Baroque style of the 17th century...

, Claude Gellée, Fragonard, Hubert Robert

Hubert Robert

Hubert Robert , French artist, was born in Paris.His father, Nicolas Robert, was in the service of François-Joseph de Choiseul, marquis de Stainville a leading diplomat from Lorraine...

, Greuze and a remarkable collection of 19th century painting and sculpture : Ingres

Ingres

Ingres Database is a commercially supported, open-source SQL relational database management system intended to support large commercial and government applications...

, Géricault, Delacroix

Eugène Delacroix

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school...

, Courbet

Gustave Courbet

Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet was a French painter who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. The Realist movement bridged the Romantic movement , with the Barbizon School and the Impressionists...

, Monet, Sisley

Alfred Sisley

Alfred Sisley was an Impressionist landscape painter who was born and spent most of his life, in France, but retained British citizenship. He was the most consistent of the Impressionists in his dedication to painting landscape en plein air...

, Pissarro, Cezanne, Modigliani

Modigliani

Modigliani may refer to:* Amedeo Modigliani , painter and sculptor** Modigliani, a 2004 biographical film about the painter and sculptor* Elio Modigliani , anthropologist, zoologist, and plant collector...

, Carpeaux

Carpeaux

Carpeaux may refer to:* Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux , French sculptor and painter.* Otto Maria Carpeaux , Austro-Brazilian literary critic....

, Maillol, Rodin

Rodin

- People :* Auguste Rodin , French sculptor, for whom is named:** The Musée Rodin in Paris, France** The Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA** The Rodin Gallery in Seoul, South Korea** Rodin , a crater on the Moon...

 etc.

The Petit Palais has served as a model for other public buildings, notably for the Royal Museum for Central Africa

Royal Museum for Central Africa

The Royal Museum for Central Africa is an ethnographical and natural history museum in Tervuren, just outside Brussels, Belgium. It was first built to show off King Leopold II's Congo Free State for the 1897 World Exhibition. It focuses mainly on Congo, Belgium's former colony...

 near Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

, and the Museo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Museum) in Santiago

Santiago, Chile

Santiago , also known as Santiago de Chile, is the capital and largest city of Chile, and the center of its largest conurbation . It is located in the country's central valley, at an elevation of above mean sea level...

, Chile.

The museum displays a remarkable collection of paintings and sculptures.

External links

• Official Website
• The Petit Palais current photographs and of the years 1900