Chinoiserie Paris – The Chinese Lady of the Rotonde du Glacier

The magnificent Palais Garnier, the Paris Opera House was completed in 1875 and was Charles Garnier’s tour de force architecturally. Not everyone’s a fan of it – Le Courbusier hated it, but a confection such as the Palais Garnier has to contain a little Chinoiserie tucked away somewhere, surely? And so it does, in the Rotande du Glacier, a light and airy rotunda adorned with a painted ceiling by Georges Jules-Victor Clairin and tapestries illustrating a variety of drinks as well as hunting and fishing scenes. Completed after the Opera had opened. Among the drink related scenes on the walls is one of a Chinese lady pouring tea…

the Rotonde du Glacier