dOrsay
Close to the Musee Maillol on the riverfront, in
a former railway station whose stone facade disguises a huge vault
of steel and glass, is the d'Orsay, at 1
rue de Bellechasse. Housing the painting and sculpture of the
period 1848-1914, and thus bridging the gap between the
Louvre Museum and Beaubourg, its highlights
are the electrifying works
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of the Impressionists
and, scarcely less impressive, of the Post Impressionists.
The design of the d'Orsay is very clever,
a combination of well-laid out galleries, ample lighting, fine presentation
and an invigorating pulse reminiscent of its days as a train station.
Critics complain that the space is overdesigned and the collection
overwhelmingly large, but don't be put off: the collection is unsurpassed
in quality as well as quantity.
It's well worth taking half a day, if not a whole one, to meander
throughout, following the rooms as they are numbered, or just to see
the galleries on the top floor. On the ground floor, the mid nineteenth
century sculptors, including Barye, caster of super
naturalistic bronze animals, occupy the centre gallery. To their right,
rooms dedicated to Ingres and Delacroix
(the bulk of whose work is in the Louvre Museum)
serve to illustrate the academics of the early nineteenth century.
Puvis de Chavannes, Gustave Moreau, the
Symbolists and early Degas follow,
while in the galleries to the left Daumier, Corot,
Millet and the Realist school depart from
the academic parameters of subject matter and idealization of the
past, and lead on to Manet's Olympia (1863), as controversial
for the colour contrasts and sensual surfaces, as for its portrayal
of Olympia as nothing more than a high class whore.
To get the chronological continuation you have to
go straight up to the top level where you will pass firstly through
the private collection donated by Moreau Nelaton,
room 29. An assiduous collector and art historian, his collection
contains some of the most famous Impressionist
images: Monet's Poppies, as well as Manet's
more controversial Dejeuner sur l Herbe, which sent the critics
into apoplexies of rage and disgust when it appeared in 1863, and
was refused for that year's Salon.
The next few rooms are full of the well-known masterpieces which typify
Impressionist: Degas' ballet-dancers,
demonstrating his principal interest in movement and line as opposed
to the more common Impressionist concern with light; and numerous
landscapes and outdoor scenes by Renoir,
Sisley, Pissarro and Monet,
owing much of their brilliance to the novel practice of setting up
easels in the open to capture the light. Le Berceau
(1872), by Berthe Morisot, the first
woman to join the early Impressionists, is one of
the few to have a complex human emotion as its subject perfectly synthesized
within the classic techniques of the movement. A very different touch,
all shimmering light and wide brush strokes, is to be seen in Renoir's
depiction of a good time being had by all in Le bal du Moulin
de la Galette a favourite Sunday afternoon out on the
Butte Montmartre.
The development of Monet's obsession with light continues
with five of his Rouen cathedral series, each painted
in different light conditions, along with one from his water
lilies series painted around fifteen years later; whilst
room 35 is full of the blinding colours and disturbing rhythms of
Van Gogh. Cezanne, a step removed
from the preoccupations of the mainstream Impressionists, is wonderfully
represented in room 36: one of the canvases most revealing of his
art is Still Life with Apples and Oranges (1895-1900), in
which the background abandons perspective while the fruit has an extraordinary
solidity.
The rest of this level is given over to the various offspring of Impressionism.
Among a number of pointillist works by Seurat (the famous
Cirque), Signac and various other artists is the
dreamlike precursor of the moderns, Rousseau's La Charmeuse de
Serpent, of 1907. There's Gauguin, post
and pre Tahiti, as well as lots of Toulouse-Iautrec
at his caricaturial nightclubbing best. Take the opportunity for a
break on the top level in the Cafe des Hauteurs - the outside terrace
offers Seine views, whilst inside you can sit in the light filtering
through the huge clock face.
The middle level takes in Rodin and other late nineteenth
century sculptors, several rooms of superb Art Nouveau
furniture and objets, and the sumptuous reception room (room 51) of
the station hotel. Vuillard and Bonnard
are tucked away here (rooms 71 & 72), while Klimt
and Munch feature in the rooms overlooking the Seine.
References: Extract from The Rough Guide to France from Kate Baillie and Tim Salmon, London: Rough Guides Ltd, 2001.
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