Musée d’Orsay and Louvre Museum are the two most famous museums in Paris, where millions of tourist visit from all across the globe all through the year. You may visit both these museums when you are on a private tour of the Louvre Orsay museum. Well, the comparison of both the museum starts from the vast difference between the years both were established. Moreover, the list goes on for quite many factors as follows.
The Years of Establishment
Both the museum was opened during the same period. However, they were built almost many centuries ago. More precisely, the Louvre museum housing the evergreen Mona Lisa, the Nike of Samothrace and the Venice de Milo were built around some 800 years ago. The second one was once an old train station that was later renovated to a large museum meant to showcase the artworks of Impressionism. Moreover, they are only 115 years old.
Historical Backgrounds
By the year of 1986, the ancient railway station constructed in 1900 was totally abandoned. Meanwhile, the most appropriate position of Musée d’Orsay just across the River Seine made the Paris City to consider them more effectively. Therefore, without getting late the city authorities renovated it to become a highly equipped world-class museum. Very surprisingly, the ancient remains such as the glass roof and clock of the ancient train station can still be found in the museum.
Constructed in 1202, the Louvre’ very first tower was built with the motive of protecting the Medieval Paris from the attacks of barbarians. Lately, in the pattern of a medieval castle, the tower was also included of which the remains can be found out from the Louvre’s basement level. Later, a royal palace was made out of this castle with the contributions of many of the French Kings. It was by the 18th century, that King Louis XIV along with this court decision of moving into Versailles. At last, this paved the way for maintaining the structure further as a museum.
Most Famous Artworks of the Museums
The museum of Musée d’Orsay also emphasizes on the Impressionist period, included in the period between 1848 and 1914. Masterpieces of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Vincent Van Gogh, Oscar-Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and many more such artists are showcased here, portraying the strong presence of Impressionism in France during the said years. This could one of the best places in the whole of Europe to acquire the best about both Impressionism and post-impressionism.
Since the Antiquity of 1847, the artworks were collected to a greater extent on Louvre museum. One cannot neglect the most popular classic painting ever done by Leonardo Da Vinci showcased here. The Italian Renaissance inventor and painter had done this work in the years starting between 1503 and 1506. However, a few years later, the artworks were purchased by French King Francis I, which had bought the painting ultimately to Paris. Other noted paintings include the works of Delacroix, Veronese, Goya, and Vermeer.
The massiveness of the Building
Covering an area of 617,850 square feet, Musée d’Orsay Museum has however emphasized more on the artifacts kept in the storage rooms, rather than for display. The former comprises of a collection of about 75,470 sculptures, painting, and other objects. All the while, about 4000 artworks can be discovered by the visitors.
Unlike the Orsay Museum, the Louvre expands to an area of 2,260,450 square feet. Nevertheless, comparatively a lesser share of space is set aside for the displaying the artworks, numbering almost 35000. Storageand other official purposes are met in the remaining spaces. Shockingly, the safe storage space of the museum accommodates almost 425,000 artworks that cannot be assessed by the Louvre visitors.
Structural Uniqueness
The ancient train station constructed at the beginning of the 20th century was converted a great deal to transform to a world-class museum of Musée d’Orsay. It was renovated in the 1900 Universal Exhibition titled as ‘Belle Epoque’. An easeful contemporary and interesting space was the result of this perfect amalgamation of the older architecture along with a modern layout.
As the Louvre is the older museum with more histories, they were being experimented time and again by different French Kings and authorities. Such a situation had prompted the museum to adorn the architecture of different time periods that range from medieval days to the Renaissance Age.
Not Many Different Crowds
Considerable popularity of both the Musée d’Orsay and Louvre grabs enough attention among the crowds, which makes them a packed space in most of the visiting hours. Hence, be ready to wait in the lines at least for some time, often which extends for a few hours. The only difference between the crowds of these museums would be of the number of tourists visiting, which is 3.5 million for Orsay and 9.3 million for Louvre.
When considering all these factors on the comparison of Musée d’Orsay and Louvre, you might have noticed some really remarkable differences. Moreover, Louvre is a step higher in terms of its architectural beauty and fine classic arts. Nevertheless, if you want to move a bit freely in the historical space, Musée d’Orsay is comparatively peaceful.