The Six Continents at Musee d'Orsay~ Missing Paris Day

This photo, taken along the esplanade next to the Musee d'Orsay, 

shows six allegorical statues created for the 1878 l'Exposition Universelle (Paris' third World's Fair).

They are known as The Six Continents. 

The first one, closest to us, is l'Europe

sculpted by Alexandre Schoenewerk. 

The next is Alexandre Falguiere's l'Asie.

Then Eugene Delaplanche's l'Afrique.

Ernest Eugene Hiolle's l'Amerique du Nord.

Aime Millet's l'Amerique du Sud.

And Mathurin Moreau's l'Oceania (Australia).

It's difficult to fully see each of them and their stories here

but by clicking on the continent's names above, you can see them close up and straight on. 

I love the painter's color palette on Europe's left (not seen here)

and the elephant behind Asia, the cornucopia held by Africa, the American Indian-look of North America,

and the kangaroo next to Australia. 

According to the Musee d'Orsay's website,

the statues were originally created for the Trocadero Palace at the Exposition

and had been lying in the Nantes public dump since 1963.

The Musee d'Orsay exchanged a Sisley painting for them 

which went to the Musee des Beaux Arts de Nantes. 

Imagine these beauties, representing our world continents,

lying in a city dump! How does that happen?

Someone had to go to great effort to get them there. 

Oh, the geniuses of the world! 

Museo de Orsay
62, rue de Lille
75343 Paris Cedex 07
France

(Photograph copyright: Kirsten Steen)