The Musée d'Orsay (English: Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It houses the largest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces in the world, by painters including Berthe Morisot, Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin, and van Gogh. Many of these works were held at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume prior to the museum's opening in 1986. It is one of the largest art museums in Europe.
Musée d'Orsay
*Excerpt : Musée d'Orsay - Wikipedia
Musée d'Orsay - Wikipedia
Art museum in Paris, France The Musée d'Orsay ( MEW-zay dor-SAY, mew-ZAY -, French: [myze dɔʁsɛ]) (English: Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway stat
en.wikipedia.org
Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
Musée d'Orsay
Orsay talks · Conferences and interviews February 08th, 2024 L’aventure impressionniste · Les saisons
www.musee-orsay.fr
Reservations are required to get in, and if you don't have a reservation, you'll be waiting for hours. (The number of visitors is limited to prevent overcrowding indoors). I've written before about the unfriendliness of French tourist destinations to English speakers, and there's no escaping it here. There are English-language guidebooks, but they are of little help. To get the most out of your visit, you'll need to rent an audio guide at extra cost. The information panels on the paintings (no matter how famous the painter) don't have the usual English text on them, only French.
The number of paintings on display is staggering, so you'll need to spend about a day to fully appreciate and enjoy them. There is no doubt that it is a great place to spend that much time.
It was my second visit, and moreover, I went without a reservation, so it was unfortunate that I didn't have enough time to take my time and appreciate the artwork as I waited for hours and was delayed in entering the museum.
Nevertheless, I managed to take pictures of a few paintings and share them here.
The Birth of Venus by Alexandre Cabanel (1863)
Naissance de Vénus - Alexandre Cabanel | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
Naissance de Vénus - Alexandre Cabanel | Musée d'Orsay
The Birth of Venus was one of the great successes of the 1863 Salon where it was bought by Napoleon III for his private collection. Cabanel, a painter who received numerous awards throughout his career, at that time played an important role in teaching at
www.musee-orsay.fr
The Birth of Venus by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1879)
Naissance de Vénus - William Bouguereau | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
Naissance de Vénus - William Bouguereau | Musée d'Orsay
de 1879 à 1920, musée du Luxembourg, Paris
www.musee-orsay.fr
Youth and Love by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1877)
La Jeunesse et l'Amour - William Bouguereau | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
La Jeunesse et l'Amour - William Bouguereau | Musée d'Orsay
1986 à 2012, déposé au musée-château, Lunéville (arrêté de dépôt du 20/09/1986, arrêté de fin de dépôt du 14/03/2012)
www.musee-orsay.fr
Two Italian Peasant Women and a Child by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1849)
Deux paysannes italiennes et un enfant - Jean-Léon Gérôme | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
Deux paysannes italiennes et un enfant - Jean-Léon Gérôme | Musée d'Orsay
2007, acquis par l'Etablissement public du musée d'Orsay (conseil scientifique de l'EPA M'O du 29/05/2007, commission des acquisitions de l'EPA M'O du 04/06/2007, conseil artistique des Musées nationaux du 20/06/2007, décision n° 2007-026/O du préside
www.musee-orsay.fr
Young dreamy laundress by Ernest Hébert (1869)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ernest_h%C3%A9bert,_la_lavandaia_(giovane_lavandaia_sognante),_1869.JPG
File:Ernest hébert, la lavandaia (giovane lavandaia sognante), 1869.JPG - Wikimedia Commons
commons.wikimedia.org
This painting is not currently on display at the Musée d'Orsay,
so no information about the work is available on the Musée d'Orsay webpage.
(as of January 28, 2024)
African elephants by Charles émile de tournemine (1867)
Eléphants d'Afrique - Charles Emile de Tournemine | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
Eléphants d'Afrique - Charles Emile de Tournemine | Musée d'Orsay
Charles Emile de Tournemine, Eléphants d'Afrique, avant 1867, huile sur toile, H. 88,0 ; L. 178,0 cm., Don Napoléon III, 1868, © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée d’Orsay) / Hervé Lewandowski
www.musee-orsay.fr
A Evening (or Olympic Ball) by Jean Béraud (1878)
Olympic Ball · Umlaut Big Band (22/06/2024) | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
Olympic Ball · Umlaut Big Band
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the last Paris Olympic Games, come and dance the evening away and relive the excitement of the “Olympic Ball, Real Sports Costume Ball” held on July 11, 1924, at the Olympia Tavern, an event that attracted the arti
www.musee-orsay.fr
Evening by Jacques Joseph (1878)
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/evening-9160
Evening - James Tissot | Musée d'Orsay
In Evening, also known as The Ball, Tissot depicts a young woman wearing a luxuriant yellow dress, arriving at a society event. The extreme femininity of the main character is emphasised through a skilful interplay of curves. Her wide fan, placed virtually
www.musee-orsay.fr
Herculanum by Hector Leroux (1881)
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/herculanum-23-aout-79-70593
Herculanum, 23 août, an 79 - Hector Leroux | Musée d'Orsay
de 1910 à 2010, déposé au musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon (arrêté de fin de dépôt du 29/01/2010)
www.musee-orsay.fr
The Last Day of Corinth by Tony Robert-Fleury (1870)
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/le-dernier-jour-de-corinthe-21813
Le Dernier Jour de Corinthe - Tony Robert-Fleury | Musée d'Orsay
In 146BC, the Greek city of Corinth fell into the hands of Rome. Robert-Fleury depicts the moment when the Roman army enters the plundered city. The women of Corinth, dreading the fate that awaited them, take refuge at the foot of the statue of Athena. The
www.musee-orsay.fr
Divina Tragedia by Paul Chenavard (1869)
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/divina-tragedia-78682
Divina Tragedia - Paul Chenavard | Musée d'Orsay
Immediately after the 1848 Revolution, the Director of Fine Arts, Charles Blanc, commissioned a decoration from Paul Chenavard for the Pantheon in Paris, which the new government wished to erect as a "temple of humanity". The artist planned a mosaic as the
www.musee-orsay.fr
Le Remords by Louis Baader (1875)
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/le-remords-16327
Le Remords - Louis Baader | Musée d'Orsay
Here, Baader depicts an episode from the life of Orestes, son of Agamemnon, the mythical king of the Mycenae. In order to avenge the murder of his father by his mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, Oreste killed the assassins. Haunted by his guilt
www.musee-orsay.fr
Acquisition process by A l'Harmonie (Jardin public) (1891)
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/collections/acquisitions/acquisition-process
Acquisition process
www.musee-orsay.fr
Harmonie rose by Claude Monet (1900)
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/fr/oeuvres/le-bassin-aux-nympheas-harmonie-rose-1174
Le Bassin aux nymphéas, harmonie rose - Claude Monet | Musée d'Orsay
1911, accepté par l'Etat à titre de legs du comte Isaac de Camondo pour le musée du Louvre (comité du 27/04/1911, conseil du 08/05/1911, arrêté du 23/11/1911)
www.musee-orsay.fr
Danse à La Ville by Auguste Renoir (1883)
Danse à la ville - Auguste Renoir | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
Danse à la ville - Auguste Renoir | Musée d'Orsay
Renoir liked dance scenes. These two paintings were designed as a pair: the format is identical and the almost life-size figures represent two different even opposite aspects of dancing. The elegant restraint of the city dancers and the cool ballroom aroun
www.musee-orsay.fr
Les Barques (the boats) by Claude Monet (1874)
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/les-barques-regates-argenteuil-1099
Les Barques. Régates à Argenteuil - Claude Monet | Musée d'Orsay
de 2005 à 2006, au Leopold Museum, Vienne, du 9 octobre 2005 au 25 janvier 2006 (échangé à l'occasion de l'exposition Klimt, Kokoshka, Schiele, Moser)
www.musee-orsay.fr
Luncheon on the Grass by Claude Monet (1866)
Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe - Claude Monet | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe - Claude Monet | Musée d'Orsay
This fragment, there is a second also in the Musée d'Orsay, is one of the remaining parts of the monumental Luncheon on the Grass by Monet. The work was started in the spring of 1865 and measured over four metres by six. It was intended to be both a tribu
www.musee-orsay.fr
Llunch on the grass by Edouard Manet (1863)
Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe - Edouard Manet | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe - Edouard Manet | Musée d'Orsay
Rejected by the jury of the 1863 Salon, Manet exhibited Le déjeuner sur l’herbe under the title Le Bain at the Salon des Refusés (initiated the same year by Napoléon III) where it became the principal attraction, generating both laughter and scandal.
www.musee-orsay.fr
Bal du moulin de la Galette (Galette Mill Ball) by Auguste Renoir (1876)
Bal du moulin de la Galette - Auguste Renoir | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
Bal du moulin de la Galette - Auguste Renoir | Musée d'Orsay
This painting is doubtless Renoir's most important work of the mid 1870's and was shown at the Impressionist exhibition in 1877. Though some of his friends appear in the picture, Renoir's main aim was to convey the vivacious and joyful atmosphere of this p
www.musee-orsay.fr
La Balançoire (The Swing) by Auguste Renoir (1876)
La Balançoire - Auguste Renoir | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
La Balançoire - Auguste Renoir | Musée d'Orsay
A young man seen from the back is talking to a young woman standing on a swing, watched by a little girl and another man, leaning against the trunk of a tree. Renoir gives us the impression of surprising a conversation – as if in a snapshot, he catches t
www.musee-orsay.fr
La Dame aux éventails (The Fan Lady) by Edouard Manet (1873)
La Dame aux éventails - Edouard Manet | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
La Dame aux éventails - Edouard Manet | Musée d'Orsay
Manet drew to a close a long series of "women on a sofa" with this picture from 1873. His model is Nina de Callias (1844-1884), a capricious woman, alternately elated and depressed, with a neurotic temperament that alcohol soon led her to insanity and a pr
www.musee-orsay.fr
Un coin d'appartement (A Corner of an apartment) by Claude Monet (1875)
Un coin d'appartement - Claude Monet | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
Un coin d'appartement - Claude Monet | Musée d'Orsay
From 1871, when he returned from England, until 1878, Monet lived in the commune of Argenteuil near Paris. During this period he often featured his wife Camille in his paintings, with their eldest son Jean, born in 1867. He is pictured here, inside the sec
www.musee-orsay.fr
Jeune fille au jardin (Young girl in the garden) by Mary Cassatt (1882)
Jeune fille au jardin - Mary Cassatt | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
Jeune fille au jardin - Mary Cassatt | Musée d'Orsay
A light, lively palette is characteristic of the work of Mary Cassatt, an American painter who introduced art lovers and collectors on the other side of the Atlantic to Impressionism. A great friend of Degas, she took part in the exhibitions of the Impress
www.musee-orsay.fr
La Méridienne (The Meridian) by Vincent Van Gogh (1890)
La Méridienne - Vincent Van Gogh | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
La Méridienne - Vincent Van Gogh | Musée d'Orsay
The siesta was painted while Van Gogh was interned in a mental asylum in Saint-Rémy de Provence. The composition is taken from a drawing by Millet for Four Moments in the Day. To justify his act, Vincent told his brother Theo: "I am using another language
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Portrait de l'artiste (Portrait of the artist) by Vincent Van Gogh (1889)
Portrait de l'artiste - Vincent Van Gogh | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
Portrait de l'artiste - Vincent Van Gogh | Musée d'Orsay
Like Rembrandt and Goya, Vincent van Gogh often used himself as a model; he produced over forty-three self-portraits, paintings or drawings in ten years. Like the old masters, he observed himself critically in a mirror. Painting oneself is not an innocuous
www.musee-orsay.fr
Jane Avril dansant (Jane Avril dancing) by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1892)
Jane Avril dansant - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
Jane Avril dansant - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec | Musée d'Orsay
Like La Goulue and the female clown Cha-U-Kao, Jane Avril was part of the night life and show business that Toulouse-Lautrec loved to portray. The daughter of a demimondaine and an Italian aristocrat, Jane Avril started to dance at the Moulin Rouge, contin
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Clownesse Cha-U-Kao by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1895)
https://www.musee-orsay.fr/en/artworks/clownesse-cha-u-kao-724
Clownesse Cha-U-Kao - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec | Musée d'Orsay
A dancer and clown at the Nouveau Cirque and the Moulin Rouge, Cha-U-Kao owes her Japanese sounding name to the phonetic transcription of the French words "chahut" (an acrobatic dance derived from the cancan) and "chaos" referring to the uproar that occurr
www.musee-orsay.fr
Portrait de l'artiste (Portrait de l'artiste) by Vincent Van Gogh (1887)
Portrait de l'artiste - Vincent Van Gogh | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
Portrait de l'artiste - Vincent Van Gogh | Musée d'Orsay
1976, musée du Louvre, galerie du Jeu de Paume, Paris (fin de l'usufruit)
www.musee-orsay.fr
L'église d'Auvers-sur-Oise, vue du chevet (Auvers-sur-Oise church, view of the apse) by Vincent Van Gogh (1890)
L'église d'Auvers-sur-Oise, vue du chevet - Vincent Van Gogh | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
L'église d'Auvers-sur-Oise, vue du chevet - Vincent Van Gogh | Musée d'Orsay
After staying in the south of France, in Arles, and then at the psychiatric hospital in Saint-Rémy de Provence, Vincent Van Gogh settled in Auvers-sur-Oise, a village in the outskirts of Paris. His brother Théo, concerned with his health, incited him to
www.musee-orsay.fr
Arearea by Paul Gauguin (1892)
Arearea - Paul Gauguin | Musée d'Orsay (musee-orsay.fr)
Arearea - Paul Gauguin | Musée d'Orsay
In April 1891, Gauguin set off for his first visit to Tahiti, in search of traces of a primitive way of life. He took his inspiration for imaginary scenes in his paintings from what he saw around him, as well as from local stories and ancient religious tra
www.musee-orsay.fr
Mockup of a sectional view of the Musée d'Orsay building
Restaurant on the upper level of the Musée d'Orsay
Large clock on the upper floor of the Orsay MuseumLarge clock on the upper floor of the Orsay Museum
Restaurant on the upper level of the Musée d'Orsay
Large clock hanging inside the ground floor of the Musée d'Orsay
Large clock hanging inside the ground floor of the Musée d'Orsay
As I mentioned earlier, I was rushed for time and there were so many paintings I didn't get to see.
And in anticipation of....
Thank you for visiting my blog and reading the article. - Camera : Canon EOS-5D Mark IV - Lens : Canon EF 16-35L / f2.8