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Introduction

Eiffel tower, a genesis and anecdotes

Champ de Mars-Rue Cler-Hotel des Invalides

Eglise Saint-Louis Dome Invalides Musee Rodin

Anecdotes of a prestigious neighborhood

Rue du Bac-Chapel of miraculous medal-Museé Maillol

Musee d'Orsay
Introduction

Musee d'Orsay
Ground level, Impressionism before 1870

Musee d'Orsay
Upper level, Impressionists and neo-Impressionism

Musee d'Orsay: medium level and end of visit

Paris-7th arr-Musee d'Orsay-Upper level-Impressionists and neo-Impressionists

Take an elevator, or the escalators, whatever, and get to the superior 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.  

Monet: Gare St.Lazare	Van Gogh-Auvers church

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.

Van Gogh: Dr.Gachet	Cezanne: Card players

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 thta an entire hall is dedicated to the pastels of Toulouse-Lautrec: Jane Avril, La Clownesse Cha-U -Kao, La Toilette, Le Lit.  

Gauguin: Tahitiennes	Degas: Danseuse

Having sore 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)