One of the reasons that we love living in Paris more than other French cities (and we did live in one or two) is its museums. After all, home to lots of world-known art pieces, Paris was dubbed the “City of Art”. On the right bank of the Seine, there is the Louvre for the ancient Greek or Roman or Renaissance art lovers out there. Next to the museum, there is also The Centre Pompidou, the largest museum for modern and contemporary art in Europe. On the left bank, there is the Musée d'Orsay, offering the world's largest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces. Having visited the first two, we finally indulged ourselves in a day of visit to the Orsay museum!
THE MUSEUM WAS A RAILWAY STATION
The building that is housing the Musée d'Orsay was originally Gare d'Orsay, a railway station that was constructed from 1898 to 1900 to allow the coming of the foreign visitors and delegations to the 1900 Paris Exhibition. A few decades later, the station was then transformed into today’s museum based on the decision of the French President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. It is why the museum has some degree of resemblance to a train station. In December 1986, then-president François Mitterrand officially inaugurated the opening of the Musée d'Orsay. It’s named after the adjacent quay: the Quai d'Orsay which was named in honour of Charles Boucher d'Orsay, one of the merchants who had it built.
ITS COLLECTIONS OF IMPRESSIONISM & POST-IMPRESSIONISM
The Musée d'Orsay exhibits and preserves over 1000 Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, making up the largest impressionist collection in the world. Some major paintings include:
Autoportrait by Vincent van Gogh
Bal du moulin de la Galette by Auguste Renoir
L'Absinthe by Edgar Degas
Starry Night Over the Rhône by Vincent van Gogh
The Luncheon on the Grass by Édouard Manet
The Magpie by Claude Monet
All of them are incredibly beautiful, but Starry Night Over the Rhône has left a particular impression. It is the blue that strikes me most. You can’t really understand how beautiful the blue is in a photo. The different shades of blue that van Gogh applied make a staggeringly beautiful contradiction to the yellow that represents the sparkling night sky and the lighting from the urban area. When I looked closer, I could see the heavy, thick brushstrokes that van Gogh used to give the painting layers upon layers, standing the starry night out on a flat canvas. A true beauty, isn’t it?
Some paintings have to be seen in person, but if you can’t, here are some of the highlights that we hope to share with you. Enjoy!
P.s. here is an article about the Gothic style that might just interest you :)