Paris1972-Versailles2003

In back to my eternal Paris, oh well yes indeed. If someone invented the idea of a city then it definitively should have taken Paris as a model. I am doing this post thanks to a picture found in my cd rom vault that should be in my blog for you and me. The task is huge so in addition to the websites and my publication many of the text comes from wikipedia. This is street passed several times and of course needed to take a picture for all times sake, Therefore, here is my take on the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts of Paris !! Hope you enjoy the post as I

The École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris (ENSBA), commonly known as the Beaux-Arts de Paris, is a art school founded in 1817. There were four fine arts: painting, sculpture, engraving, with architecture until 1968, when the Minister of Culture André Malraux created eight teaching units of architecture (UPA) spread throughout the country. Since then, the teaching units have been transformed into National Schools of Architecture (ENSA). The École des Beaux-Arts forms a vast complex located on the left bank of the Seine, opposite the Louvre Museum, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés quartier or neighborhood, whose buildings are spread over more than two hectares, between rue Bonaparte and quai Malaquais, and date from the 17-19C and even, in some parts, from the 20C. The Rue Bonaparte begins at Quai Malaquais on the banks of the Seine, passes in front of the Ecole de Beaux Arts, crosses Place Saint Germain des Prés in front of the church, then Boulevard Saint Germain where Rue de Rennes begins. The street runs alongside the City/Town Hall of the 6éme arrondissement which faces Place St Sulpice, and ends at Rue de Vaugirard opposite the Jardin du Luxembourg gardens.

The École des beaux-arts de Paris is a place of artistic instruction and experimentation, exhibitions and conservation of historical and contemporary collections, as well as a publishing house. Heir to the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, founded in 1648 by Cardinal Mazarin under Louis XIV, Today, a public institution under the responsibility of the Ministry of Culture. Its first mission is to educate and train students planning to devote themselves to high-level artistic creation Beaux-Arts de Paris is a member of Université Paris Sciences & Lettres (PSL), a community of 25 prestigious Parisian educational institutions. The Beaux-Arts or Fine Arts program is organized into workshops, unlike most other art schools that operate on a course-based basis. The duration of studies at ENSBA is a minimum of three years, a maximum of five years, and a non-mandatory post-graduation year. Since 2006, teaching has been brought into line with European standards, and the academic year is divided into two semesters, each leading to a minimum number of UC (credit units). You can get here on metro line 4 Saint-Germain-des-Prés ,and metro line 7 Pont Neuf.

With nearly 450,000 works and publications, the collections of the École des Beaux-Arts allow us to reconstruct the history of official art teaching in France, which spread throughout the world, attracting students from all continents. These collections consist of approximately 2,000 paintings including works by Nicolas Poussin (Mercury, Herse and Aglaure), Anthony van Dyck, Hyacinthe Rigaud, Charles de la Fosse (The Rape of Proserpine, circa 1673), Charles-Joseph Natoire, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Hubert Robert, Jacques-Louis David (Erasistratus Discovering the Cause of Antiochius’s Disease) and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, 600 objects of different types of decorative arts, 600 architectural elements (fragments, parts of ancient buildings), approximately 15,000 medals, 3,700 sculptures, 20,000 drawings including some by Albrecht Dürer, Michelangelo, Paul Veronese, Primaticcio, Pontormo, Jacques Bellange, Nicolas Poussin, Charles Le Brun, Claude Lorrain, Rubens, Antoon Van Dyck, Jacob Jordaens, Rembrandt, François Boucher, Hubert Robert, Ingres, Géricault, Delacroix, Gustave Moreau, and Pierre Alechinsky, 45,000 architectural drawings, 100,000 engravings and prints, including some by Dürer and Lucas Cranach the Elder, 70,000 photographs dating mostly from the period 1850-1914, 65,000 books dating from the 15C to the 20C , including 3,500 for the 15-16C, 1,000 pieces of handwritten archives (letters, inventories, registers, notes) as well as 390 important illuminated manuscripts, complete or fragmentary. The new library opened its doors to students on January 25, 1864. It is a rectangular room measuring 20 by 8 meters. In 1967, the library was expanded to include a periodicals room and a library for elementary studies, located in the north gallery of the Palais des Études. The library was renovated in 1975. In the 1990s, Greek patronage from the “Friends of Stratis Andréadis” enabled the library to be transformed into a current affairs media library bearing his name, which opened in 1994. Housed in the glass-enclosed courtyard of the Palais des Études, the Media Library of the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris. The media library contains a collection of books, exhibition catalogs, artist monographs, French and foreign periodicals, thematic files, audiovisual documents, and digital photographs of student work.

The school of Beaux-Arts de Paris today is a vast complex whose premises were located in the Grande Galerie of the Louvre Palace from 1661 until the suppression of the academies by the Convention in 1793. At the time of the French revolution, the monks were expropriated, and the site was converted in 1795 to house the Musée des Monuments Français. During the First Empire,(Napoléon Ier), the museum, sometimes called the “Musée des Monuments des Arts” or the “Musée des Petits-Augustins”, the École académique and the Académie d’architecture merged and created the École des Beaux- Arts. The school was successively located in the Louvre, in the Collège des Quatre-Nations, rue Mazarine, and then on the site of the former Couvent des Petits-Augustins, rue Bonaparte. The oldest buildings are the chapel and its annexes, erected in the early 17C as part of the monastery. This museum adjoins the Hôtel de Juigné, at nos. 11-13 Quai Malaquais, which became the Ministry of Police in 1795. After the return of the monarchy, during the Restoration -1814-1830), Louis XVIII decided to close the museum in 1816, and its collections were partly dispersed. It was in 1883 that the school underwent its last major expansion and presented the most remarkable elements of French sculpture, with the purchase of the Hôtel de Chimay and its annexes, dating from the 17-18C, located at nos. 15 and 17 quai Malaquais. Between 1975 and 1985, the Ministry of Culture, prioritizing heritage, carried out numerous restorations of historic buildings, given the important remains of the former Museum of French Monuments and the Museum of Fine Arts.

The official National School of Fine Arts of Paris : https://beauxartsparis.fr/en

The Université de Paris on the Beaux Arts de Paris : https://psl.eu/les-beaux-arts-de-paris

The Paris tourist office on the National School of Fine Arts of Paris : https://parisjetaime.com/eng/culture/ecole-nationale-superieure-des-beaux-arts-p946

There you go folks, a wonderful spot in my eternal Paris. This is the wonderful building , an off the beaten path site that merits a visit ,me think. It will take more than a post to tell you all about the wonders of Paris, but I am working on it ! Again, hope you enjoy this post on the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts of Paris !! as I. And remember, happy travels, good health and many cheers to all !!!