Art Tour Series Part III

 At the beginning of each month, I write a post on a favorite museum of mine. With an art education background and being an artist all of my life, I am totally in love with original art; not reproductions--the real deal.

 My most favorite art museum of all time is the Musee D'Orsay in Paris.  I had the distinct honor to enter its doors in 2010 and still to this day pinch myself that I took such a trip.  My son Michael and I went to Paris upon his college graduation, and being artists with sketchbooks in hand, we hiked for 7 hours each day around the city, landing in every art museum-- drawing, photographing every tidbit we could.

Located on the left bank of Le Seine in the 7th Arrondissement on the Rue de Legion D'Honneur is the Musee D'Orsay.

Of course, it is bordered by the most charming neighborhood:

    A Bit of History:

Originally the Gare D'Orsay was a Beaux-Arts railway station and hotel built for the World's Fair in 1900. It was the architect's challenge to match it's elegant surroundings, as it is in the same neighborhood as the Louvre and the Palais de la Légion d'honneur.  

After the need for a new rail station was eminent and the hotel closed in 1975, the station was declared a Historical Monument in 1978, and transformed into a museum by 1986.

The building itself is enveloped in a ceiling of natural light that makes the entire space glow.  The carved stone, statuary and architectural details blew us away.  It was much more 'user friendly' than the massive Louvre, so it perfectly accommodated our love for Realism through Impressionist eras with artists like Gauguin, Degas, Manet, Cezanne and Rousseau. To stand in front of paintings we had both studied in Art History classes, like The Gleaners shown here, was to be in the presence of greatness.

Jean-François Millet (1814-1875)

 Look how this Serusier painting from 1888 parallels contemporary art today:

          Paul Sérusier (1864-1927)        The Talisman, the Aven River at the Bois d'Amour

Edouard Vuillard - Dr. Georges Viau in His Office Treating Annette Roussel

Van Gogh's "Starry Night over the Rhone" , 1988

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)The Clown Cha-U-Kao1895

There are hundreds of  sculptures in the D'Orsay, among them Degas famous "Small Dancer age 14":

and a stone version of Auguste Rodin's "Gates of Hell":

  The current exhibit at the Musee D'Orsay is Degas and the Nude. Oh how I wish I could see this in person!

                  Edgar Degas (1834-1917)                  Woman drying her neck, after her bath

Have you been to this fabulous museum?  Now I should be inspired to paint! How 'come life gets in the way?

~Nancy

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