Orsay - Paintings [antikvár]

Painting First Serge Lemoine Director of the fvlusée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay, which is dedicated to the art of the second half of the nineteenth century and the turn of the twentieth, is known all around the world. Since its opening in December 1986 it has welcomed over 50 million visitors. It owes this extraordinary success in part to its position along the Seine, near the Louvre, and to its building, a converted 1900s railway station, but above all to its outstanding collections: paintings, sculptures, drawings, decorative art, works of architecture and photographs - each artistic discipline is displayed in keeping with its specific needs, each with the same care. Still, painting is Orsay's main attraction. The reason for this is simple: it is here that visitors can see works by some of the world's most famous artists. the global pre-eminence then enjoyed by French art. By the same token, foreign artists are not so well represented, often only by one work: Whistler and Homer, whose paintings entered the collection back in the nineteenth century, or again Klimt, Hodler, Munch, Khnopff, Böcklin, Burne-|ones, Mondrian, Amiet and Hammershsi - all recent acquisitions and welcome extensions of the collection. There are many paintings that stand out from these ensembles - universally celebrated masterpieces such as Millet's monumentally simple composition L'Angélus, or, in complete contrast, Renoir's Le Bal du Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre, with its shimmering touch and colours. Attention goes first to the ensembles: Courbet and Millet, who had an enduring Influence, Corot and the School of Barblzon. The superb collection of Manets and the group of works by Fantin-Latour are impressive. Here too are the major works of Puvis de Chavannes, a painter whose heritage was felt well into the twentieth century. Monet, Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley, as well as Degas and Cézanne, are all represented by important ensembles, as are the artists of the next generation: Gauguin, Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec, the Neo-lmpressionists, Seurat, Signac and Cross, and the Symbolist movement with Moreau and Redon. The Musée d'Orsay offers a particularly clear reflection of the effervescence of this period, which was one of the most creative in the history of art, and remains one of the most popular with the public. Its collection has grown continuously since it was first put together in the nineteenth century. At Orsay, the art of the period is presented in all Its diversity, just as it is in this book. The period's other artistic trends are also shown. Whether Couture, Meissonier, Cabanel, Gérôme or Delaunay, or Breton, TIssot and Bastien-Lepage, or again Laurens, Détaillé and de Neuville, many of these more academic artists enjoyed glory and held great authority during their lifetime. This panorama reflects