Musée d'Orsay

The best part about taking Histoire de L'art in Paris is that most of the actual paintings are in Paris! We took a field trip to the Musée d'Orsay to see some of the paintings that we had been learning about in class. Our professor guided us through the first floor of the museum, starting with the Realisme movement and Jean-Francais Millet's Les Glaneuses. It was interesting to see the actual size of the paintings because he always mentions them in class. Also, he showed us the progression through each movement. We covered Realisme, Impressionisme, Post-Impressionisme, Neo-Impressionisme, Fauvisme, and Expressionisme. We saw works by Manet, Gauguin, VanGogh, Monet, Renoir, Degas,and many others. It was a 2 1/2 hour personal tour of the museum in French. I really enjoyed the Pointilisme and Fauvisme works because you could see each individual brushstroke. After class, I stayed to look at the Psychodelic Exhibit on the second floor. It was all artwork from the 60s; album covers, furniture, and posters in French. Unfortunately the other floors are closed, including the Impressionist's floor, so I didn't get to see all of the paintings that we learned about. But the actual museum is amazing to see because it is in an old train station (gare) and free for students! We have 2 more museum visits with class to other museums in Paris. I'm looking forward to them.

They also have an exhibit in the back of the Musée that is a model of the old Opera house. Under a glass floor display, they have a replica of the Paris city streets and open model of the Opera house. You can see all of the stage equipment. It's definitely worth taking a trip to the back of the museum.