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52 Week Photography Project
January 2025 Edition
1-Keeping Time - Interpret that as you will.
The clock at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris is a masterpiece of Belle Époque design, a style that is elegant and flamboyant to the point of being garish.
It’s a style that pervaded the art and architecture of Europe in the decades prior to the First World War.
In Paris, elements of Belle Époque design are reflected in such landmarks as the Eiffel Tower, the Grand Palais and the Bon Marché department store.
At the Musee d’Orsay, the centerpiece clock serves as an interior landmark and meeting place, competing for attention among the dozens of impressionist masterpieces by the likes of Cézanne, van Gogh, Monet, and Renoir.
The Musee d’Orsay was originally designed and built as Gare d’Orsay train station in 1900 by renowned Beaux-Arts architect Victor Laloux and operated as such until the 1939.
Laloux also personally designed the station’s clock, always intending it to be an attention grabber in order to keep rail travelers focused, informed and moving on time.