Salute to Musee d'Orsay

Day 5: 1st Jan 2014

Most Museums are closed on New Years Day but fortunately not Musee d'Orsay which is located opposite the Tulleries Gardens on the Left Bank of the Seine.  The site of this museum is an old railway station which is a museum piece in itself. The museum was installed in the former Orsay railway station, built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900.and displays art from the period 1848 to 1914.Some of the movie 'Hugo' was filmed in the clock here.

The Museum rivals The Louvre for its art collection and boasts many works of the Impressionists and other major French artists.  The list of artists include Boudin, Cezanne, , Gaugin, Manet, Millet Monet, Renoir and , of course, Van Gogh.  The Impressionist gallery was simply stunning with many painting known the world over by everyone , not just art lovers.  You could not take photos but see the website link above.
It was amazing to see the original of the Claude Monet's Haystacks at the End of Summer, Morning Effect, 1891.  Monet did a series of 25 paintings on haystacks particularly showing the different times of day.  We have a print of Haystacks, (Midday), 1890-91, (original in National Gallery Canberra) at home and the original in the series at d'Orsay is amazing.


Some paintings that I discovered or learned much more about included:

The Card Players - Cezanne

Painting of Human Figures, the History of a Burial at Ornans. - Courbet.  This work caused a scandal because he made it a "statement of principle" of  realism because he used a canvas of dimensions usually reserved for history painting, a "noble" genre, to present an ordinary subject, with no idealisation of the characters.


The Ballet Class - Edgar Degas.  Asparagus -Edouard Manet. There is a great story behind this.

There is no better place than the Musee d'Orsay to learn about the development of realism in art. Impressionist painting etc.  I cannot speak for Maureen but I felt that I learned so much here about the history of painting!  

On the way home we strolled briskly through the Tulleries Gardens which were packed with Parisians (and their dogs) out for New Years Day stroll.