Sunday, August 22, 2010

An elephant at Orsay


This sculpture is called "the trapped Elephant" and it was made by Emmanuel Fremiet for the Universal Exhibit of 1878 (it used to be gilded then!). To me it has a special flavor as... before being in front of the Musée d'Orsay like today, it was located at Porte de Saint Cloud, in the 16th arrondissement. I used to pass by it everyday when I was a little boy and would try to climb on it!

17 comments:

  1. Pauvre elephant...piege, et sans son allure doree...

    Belle prise de vue.

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  2. Whenever I see this statue I immediately remember the huge line to go into the museum right next to it.

    Luckly I had my museum pass with me so I didn't have to stand in line. Buying that pass was one of the best decisions I've took while in Paris.

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  3. Reading your story about the elephant made it come to life for me. I enjoyed knowing that it's a part of your childhood!

    I have an outdoor Musee d'Orsay story, too.
    The Mona Lisa was located behind the elephant's behind one day. That is, one of those big wooden pictures with the face cut out ready to have yours put in for a few euros.Let's just say my smiling face was not what Mr. Da Vinci had in mind.

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  4. Very cool angle you have here, Eric! I can just picture you trying to get up on this pauvre bete—but did you ever succeed??

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  5. hey nice photos could you look at mine terrenomar.com

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  6. Lovely story to accompany a charming statue! We fell in love with Paris last time we visited and can't wait to return!

    Jamie
    www.gfinkfamily.blogspot.com

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  7. Oh, I have a photo my daughter took during our visit to Paris last month. It is of me and the elephant... How nice to see it again.

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  8. I don't really know why but I love statues of animals like the Lion of Place Denfert Rochereau or this cute baby elephant, not very fat yet!
    If I happen to go to Musee d'Orsay, I'll look for the elephant and listen to what he remembers from the little Eric from Porte de St Cloud who tried to climb on him :) I wonder where he was located in this area at that time...
    Monica is right about pass.
    Have a nice day, all :-)

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  9. Oh, that is so sweet! It is always nice when you have a special memory of a certain place or thing and revisiting brings back such a feeling. I love that! Bonjour, Monsieur Elephant!

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  10. Wonderful memory, Eric. And I agree with Anonymous--pauvre elephant! The statue is very compelling. True about the pass, too, Monica. A world of difference.

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  11. I saw this photo by Peter Dubreuil "Eléphantaisie", 1908, at the Legion of Honor "Paris: City of Light" show. It looks like the same elephant, non? http://legionofhonor.famsf.org/files/imagecache/exhibition_preview_large/elephant.jpg

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  12. Here is a better link http://legionofhonor.famsf.org/pressroom/pressreleases/impressionist-paris-city-light-legion-honor

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  13. My very favorite museum! Great picture, Eric.

    :o)

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  14. I just saw m. l'elephant and found him as beautiful as in the photo. just love to say hi, I know you thanks to Eric and even know where you lived before. Do you remember?
    I saw him closing an eye slowly like that ;-)
    Quite big but a young elephant! and no more gilded as noone of his friends there : the horse and the rhino.
    It is hot in Paris this evening. I would not be surprised if the rain was coming.

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  15. That's a cute story Eric. I'm thinking of doing some series of all the various animal representations in Paris.

    I recently discovered some elephant sculptures on a building on av. de l'Observatoire (No.1?). Do you know them?

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  16. @Sab. It's a great idea. You should do it (and I maybe tempted to do it too!).

    No, I don't know this elephant sculpture avenue de l'Obvervatoire.

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  17. This is a very beautiful sculpture.

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