Le Nouvel Opera de Paris Folio (1878)
Exquisite Chromolithographs and Steel Engravings
of the Paris Opera House by Architect Jean Louis Charles Garnier
February 18-March 24, 2012
Beaux Arts, a Dallas Design District art gallery specializing in antiquarian prints and rare maps from the 16th-19th centuries, presents Le Nouvel Opera de Paris Folio. This exhibition of 22 chromolithographs and steel engravings from 1878 of the Paris Opera House by its architect Jean Louis Charles Garnier will open Saturday, Feb. 18 5-8 p.m. with a free public reception. The exhibition will continue through March 24. Additional architectural engravings will be on display from the gallery’s expansive architecture collection. Beaux Arts is located at 1505 Hi Line Dr. Dallas, TX 75207. It is open to the public for free Monday-Friday 9 a.m.-6 p.m. and Saturday noon-5 p.m. See www.beauxartsart.com for more information or call 214-741-5555.
About the Artist:
Jean Louis Charles Garnier (1825-1898) was a French architect, born on Nov. 6, 1825, in Paris. He became the apprentice of the French architect Louis Hippolyte Lebas and learned neoclassical style design. He was a full time student at École des Beaux-Arts in 1841. Garnier spent 5 years in Italy after winning the Grand Prix de Rome in 1848 at the age of 23. He later traveled through Greece and found architectural influence among the ruins there. Garnier entered the competition for the Académie Nationale de Musique, better known as the Opéra, in Paris in 1861. He won fifth prize in the first stage of a two-phase competition and later that year won the commission selected from over 171 entries. The Opéra was built from 1862 to 1867; the interiors were not completed until 1874. The folio Le Nouvel Opera de Paris was published in 1878 to honor Garnier's grand design.