While visiting the Paris Opera House the ceiling in the auditorium caught my eye as it seemed quite out of left field. Given the piece’s break with the style of the rest of the building, it was quite clearly not original.
While the Palais Garnier opened in 1875, the current ceiling by Marc Chagall was not created until 1964, 89 years later. I began to wonder why such a modern piece is in such a classic space, especially when it seems as if large amounts of energy went into making the space cohesive. When the building was opened, a beautiful painting called The Muses and the Hours of the Day and Night by Jules Lenepveu occupied the ceiling; however, by the 1960s the academic paintings of that era had become quite unfashionable.
Andre Malraux, French Minister of Culture at the time, decided the Opera needed a new and unique ceiling. He decided the man for the job was Chagall, supposedly after seeing his costumes for Daphnis et Chloe at the Palais Garnier.
People were not fond of the new piece at first, and many still consider it sacrilege. Whether the issue was a man from Belarus painting a French national monument, the paintings clear difference from the rest of the building, or simply that it was unnecessary change to the Opera, people were very upset. However, the new work of art did succeed in making the Palais Garnier more fashionable by attracting more attention to the building.
Chagall’s work stands in stark contrast to the rest of the Opera House, but I find it quite lovely. Though everything in me cringes at the unnecessary modification of such a landmark, the introduction of more modern and flowing art to the space seems to speak to the continued use and vibrancy of both opera as an art form and the Palais Garnier.