PARIS, FRANCE.-Musée d'Orsay Graphic Arts Gallery presents Churches: East or West? From the Concordat of 1801 to the separation of Church and State in 1905, around 9 000 churches were erected in France. This rush of church building which followed the destruction and mutilation of many places of worship during the Revolution, answered needs posed by a revival in the practice of Christianity and a demographic boom.

In 1853, the Administration des cultes issued a decree instructing diocesan architects to devise plans for standardised church constructions to accommodate congregations of 500 to 5000. It had been intended to publish the results, but the project failed due to the responses' small number (forty-two) and poor quality.
And yet the greatest architects of the 19th century: Lassus, Viollet-le-Duc and Baltard, all took an interest in ecclesiastical architecture, designing churches of various dimensions and styles. While Alphonse Gosset drew inspiration from Constantinople's 5th century St. Sofia Basilica for his St. Clothilde Basilica in Reims, built between 1898 and 1900, at the other extreme, we find Louis-Charles Boileau using the industrial material of iron to build his Sainte-Eugène Church in Paris.

The drawings presented in this exhibition witness to a specifically 19th century search for an ecclesiastical architectural style. Exhibition curated by Caroline Mathieu, Chief Curator, Musée d'Orsay.