Paris, Thursday, May 7, 2015

On the restoration of L’Atelier du peintre (The Artist's Studio) Allégorie réelle déterminant une phase de sept années de ma vie artistique ("a real allegory dictating a seven year period of my life as an artist") by Gustave Courbet; visitors to the Musée d’Orsay are invited to enjoy an entirely new and immersive experience - including sight and sound - to discover the mysteries of this monumental work. Using the tablets at their disposal in front of the canvas, visitors will be able to enter and explore The Artist's Studio with a poetic tour during which the characters reveal their secrets. At the end, an interactive sequence takes a light hearted look at how the painting was created and the challenges involved in its restoration.

Available in French, English and Italian, this experience will also be available to internet users at www.entrezdanslatelier.fr, so that they can continue to find out about and study the painting through additional content.

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The result of an exemplary partnership

For many years, Orange has had a partnership policy with cultural institutions, touching on projects with a common goal: putting digital technology at the heart of culture, as a factor of human, economic and cultural development. This project is part of this overall skills sponsorship programme undertaken by Orange for the benefit of the Musée d’Orsay involving the creation of the on-site experience as well as the special internet site. It is the result of a joint project undertaken by the teams at Orange, the Musée d’Orsay and the Polymorph and Total Immersion agencies. This original programme, combining the expertise of Orange and its partners, and offering opportunities for experimentation to its own augmented reality laboratories, is an integral part of the way in which the Orange Group approaches innovation. It is one of the projects selected in the "New Industrial France Augmented Reality" government plan, co-managed by Orange with the Images & Networks centre. [

The Musée d’Orsay breaks new ground

The challenge of this immersive virtual experience for the Musée d'Orsay was to combine observation, pleasure and education. This new form of media leaves visitors free to discover the painting in their own way and complements the more traditional types of presentation, namely the written information near the painting and either the audio guide commentary or the direct commentary of a guide. With its monumental size, the number of characters, the complexity of its composition and symbolism and its many mysteries, The Artist's Studio was particularly well suited for the project. This painting by Courbet was already occupying centre stage at the Musée d'Orsay due to its restoration in the gallery itself, partly financed thanks to the efforts of numerous donors during an extraordinary on-line crowdfunding campaign. Making this application available to the public should enable them to better understand and engage even more with this major nineteenth century work. [

Orange and augmented reality

Augmented reality make sit possible to display contextual information around the user and offer new ways of creating interaction. For quite some time, Orange has been conducting joint research projects into augmented reality. In a wider sense, this field fits with Orange's development of new ways of interacting with content and objects by placing the potential users of these new uses and experiences at the heart of its approach to research and innovation.

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](http://www.entrezdanslatelier.fr/)

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Download the press release

• [ Augmented reality at the service of a major French work of art, L’Atelier du peintre by Gustave Courbet (85.5 kB) ](http://www.orange.com/en/content/download/30457/923860/version/14/file/CP Orange_Orsay_0605_eng.pdf)

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Press contacts:

Orange Estelle Ode-Coutard:

+33 (0)1 44 44 93 93 – estelle.odecoutard@orange.com

Musée d’Orsay Marie Dussaussoy:

+33 (0)1 40 49 49 96 – marie.dussaussoy@musee-orsay.fr Coralie David: +33 (0)1 40 49 49 20 – coralie.david@musee-orsay.fr

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About Orange

Orange is one of the world’s leading telecommunications operators with sales of 39 billion euros in 2014 and 155,000 employees worldwide at 31 March 2015, including 98,000 employees in France. Present in 29 countries, the Group has a total customer base of 247 million customers worldwide at 31 March 2015, including 188 million mobile customers and 16 million fixed broadband customers. Orange is also a leading provider of global IT and telecommunication services to multinational companies, under the brand Orange Business Services. In March 2015, the Group presented its new strategic plan “Essentials2020” which places customers’ needs at the heart of its strategy with the aim of allowing them to benefit fully from the digital universe and the power of its new generation networks.

Orange is listed on the NYSE Euronext Paris (symbol ORA) and on the New York Stock Exchange (symbol ORAN). For more information on the internet and on your mobile: www.orange.com, www.orange-business.com, www.livetv.orange.com or to follow us on Twitter: @orangegrouppr.

Orange and any other Orange product or service names included in this material are trademarks of Orange or Orange Brand Services Limited. [

About Musée d'Orsay

Since it was created, the Musée d'Orsay has used NICTs (New Information and Communication Technologies) to communicate, impart knowledge and entertain. From the first innovative applications made available to the public in 1986 when the museum opened, via the cultural CD-ROMs and the more recent development of the internet and mobile applications etc., the museum is now testing immersive augmented reality. These tools are used as part of its mission of spreading knowledge and education, so that as many people as possible can experience moments of personal enrichment.

This partnership with Orange has been a tremendous opportunity for the museum, as it has facilitated the implementation of an innovative project for the benefit of the public, bringing them an experience as exciting as it is enriching.

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