7TH ARR-MUSEE D'ORSAY-UPPER LEVEL AND IMPRESSIONISTS
Jack
http://i.am/jack_travel and on http://home.earthlink.net/~primos
Also my Paris sketches are on http://i.am/jack_travel
7TH ARR-MUSEE D'ORSAY-UPPER LEVEL AND IMPRESSIONISTS
Take an elevator, or the escalators, whatever, and get to the upper
level that houses the greatest part of the Impressionist and
Post-Impressionist collections, once exposed at the Musee du Jeu de
Paume.
Largely provided by natural light thanks to the immense glass-case,
these spaces are ideal to show and enhance the beauty and valor of the
very important collection of that period. You can follow the history
of the impressionist movement starting from the pavilion, a movement
that grouped in 1874 about 165 paintings of thirty participants always
"refused" by official jury's: Cezanne, Monet, Degas, Sisley, Renoir,
Pissarro...The work of Monet "Impression, soleil levant", qualified by
a critic as "impressionism" in the negative and mockery way of the
word, is the origin of the movements name. Seven other "non official"
exhibitions took place until 1886, while Caillebotte joined the
artists in 1876, became their maecenas, and bequeathed his collection
to the State. In 1879 the group welcomed the American Mary Cassatt and
Gauguin. Seurat and Signac joined in 1886.
Since all he works exposed in these galleries are famous works I will
mention the most famous and important. First of all, in the collection
Moreau-Nelaton, "Hommage to Delacroix" by Fantin-Latour, "Coquelicots"
We can see Monet (La Gare Saint-Lazare, Regates a Argenteuil,the
series of les Cathedrales de Rouen, Impression soleil levant, les
Dindons), Pissarro (Les Toits rouges), Sisley (Inondation a
Port-Marly), Berthe Morisot (Le Berceau), Degas (L'Absinthe, à la
Bourse, Chevaux de courses, Danseuses bleues), Manet (Sur la Plage),
Renoir (Danse à la ville, Le Bal du Moulin de la Galette, La
Balancoire), Les Baigneuses) and the famous "Dejeuner sur l'Herbe " by
Manet. You have a beautiful Whistler (mother of the artist), Renoir
again with "Les Baigneuses", "Jeunes Filles au Piano", "Danse a la
Campagne", Caillebotte (Raboteurs de parquet and l'Absinthe), and the
soft pastels of Degas (les Repasseuses) not to miss, secluded in 2
small rooms barely lighted (near the cafeteria)--pastels don't support
the light-
The collection of docteur Gachet, friend of the impressionists
(however I suspect him to be a visionary collector and knew what he
gained from his friendships), permitted the entry in the national
collections of an impressive number of works by Van Gogh (Portrait de
l'Artiste peint a St.Remy, Portrait du docteur Gachet, the church of
Auvers-sur-Oise, l'Arlesienne, la Chambre a Arles) and Cezanne
(Card players, l'Estaque, pommes et oranges, Baigneurs and more) At
the other end, past the Cafe des Hauteurs," Monet and Renoir in their
last years" with amongst them, "London, the Parliament" and "The Blue
Nympheas" by Monet, and more "Les Baigneuses" by Renoir. Then the
pointillists Paul Signac, Seurat (ah! the marvellous "Cirque")
In the neo-impressionist section let's single out Odilon Redon,
Toulouse-Lautrec (La Toilette, Jeanne Avril dansant, le Douanier
Rousseau (which I don't particularly like) and the school of Pont-Aven
around Gauguin (La Belle Angele, Femmes de Tahiti, le Cheval Blanc, le
Repas), Emile Bernard and finally the Nabis with small sized paintings
of Pierre Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Vuillard, Felix Vallotton and
Sérusier. Notice a complete hall dedicated to the pastels of
Toulouse-Lautrec: Jane Avril, La Clownesse Cha-U -Kao, La Toilette, Le
Lit.
Feeling sore in your feet? Want a rest? Get to the cafeteria and have
a cup before going down again to the last part of the museum: the
medium level with other post-impressionist paintings, Art deco, Art
Nouveau, etc..
Bibliography: --Vie et histoire des arrondissements de Paris,
ed.Hervas, 1985-1988, 20 volumes- Le piéton de Paris, by L.P. Fargue,
ed.Gallimard 1997-Rive Gauche, une expérience unique, by Cl.Evrard,
ed.Albin 1991--Guides du Routard 1998, ed.Hachette, Les 20
arrondissements de Paris, by Martine Constans, Renaissance du Livre
1998--Orsay museum in Parijs, by H.Witteveen, ed.Spectrum-Orsay und
die Impressionisten, by W. Shulers (ed.Deltas, Munchen 1995)
My Paris,Provence and Cote d'Azur posts are open again at
http: http://i.am/jack_travel WITH pictures and at
http://home.earthlink.net/~primos