Musée d'Orsay

From Train Station to Museum: A Century of the Musée d'Orsay

The site where the Musée d'Orsay now stands was once home to the Palais d'Orsay, built in 1804 to house the Court of Aud…

Two Opposing Movements, Born in the Same Era: Neoclassicism and Romanticism

This tour begins in Room 1 on the ground floor of the Musée d'Orsay, home to Neoclassical and Romantic paintings. That p…

Thirty-Six Years of Brushwork: Ingres's The Source

The Source, one of the signature works by the great Neoclassical painter Ingres, took him from age 40 to age 76 to compl…

A Shadow of a Lost Masterpiece: Delacroix's Lion Hunt

Lion Hunt, by the great Romantic painter Delacroix, has a raw, emotional intensity that sets it worlds apart from Neocla…

A Beast That Doesn't Exist in Europe: Delacroix's Tiger Hunt

Tiger Hunt grabs you immediately through its composition alone. At the bottom center, a tiger leaps up mid-attack; above…

A Stolen Glimpse After the Bath: Chassériau's Tepidarium

Chassériau's Tepidarium takes its name from the warm, lukewarm room found in a Roman bathhouse. It captures a group of w…

The Venus That Won Over an Emperor: Cabanel's The Birth of Venus

Cabanel's The Birth of Venus shows a beautiful woman reclining atop the waves, with small cherubs fluttering above her.…

A Village Shared by a Hundred Painters: The Barbizon School

Barbizon is a small village about 50 kilometers from Paris. Artists who lived and painted there between the late 1830s a…

Quiet Devotion, or a Hidden Coffin: Millet's The Angelus

Two figures stand still in a field, hands folded in prayer, pausing their work at the sound of a church bell ringing out…

The Crime of Painting an Uncomfortable Truth: Millet's The Gleaners

Millet spent ten years studying the practice of gleaning before completing this painting. Set in a field near Barbizon,…

Resting Beside a Friend: Millet's Late Work, Spring

Spring, one piece from a seasonal series Millet painted late in life, shows a narrow path winding through an open field…

Bring Me an Angel and I'll Paint One: The Birth of Realism

Looking back at the art movements covered so far, Neoclassicism dominated during the French Revolution and Napoleon's em…

A Woman, Not a Goddess: Courbet's The Source

Courbet's The Source shows a woman standing in a forest, her body dipping slightly into a stream. There's no grand stagi…

A Trace of Love Revealed by X-Ray: Courbet's The Wounded Man

Blood on his cheek, a bloodstained shirt, a sword lying beside him — the scene looks for all the world like the aftermat…

A Cliff Shaped Like an Elephant: Courbet's Étretat

Étretat is a small coastal town in northwestern France, familiar to many Korean travelers as a stop along the way to Mon…

A Commoner's Funeral on a Royal Canvas: Courbet's A Burial at Ornans

Measuring roughly 6.68 meters wide and 3.15 meters tall, A Burial at Ornans is one of Courbet's defining works, depictin…

The World Inside My Studio: Courbet's The Painter's Studio

Another monumental work by Courbet, formally titled The Painter's Studio: A Real Allegory Summing Up Seven Years of My A…

The Painter Who Chose a Pension Over Lottery Riches: Guillaumin's Sunset at Ivry

Guillaumin's Sunset at Ivry depicts an industrial district on the outskirts of Paris, where tall smokestacks stand in a…

A Brush Stopped by Tragic News: Manet's The Bullfight

An early work from a period when Manet was deeply drawn to Spanish art, The Bullfight shows a bull already fallen, surro…

A Prostitute, Not a Goddess: Manet's Provocation, Olympia

A nude woman reclines on a bed while a Black maid stands beside her, holding a bouquet of freshly delivered flowers. Man…

Strip Away the Background, and the Figure Emerges: Manet's The Fifer

Manet drew on the work of past masters as a springboard for his own experiments, gradually building his own distinctive…

She's Like a Line of Poetry: Manet's Lola de Valence

The Spanish dancer Lola de Valence stands in elaborate costume, gazing directly out at the viewer. Her expression and po…

An Ordinary Moment of Everyday Life: Manet's Reading

The two figures in this painting are Manet's wife, Suzanne, and their son, Léon. Léon is absorbed in a book while Suzann…

A Portrait of a Six-Year Love: Tissot's A Woman in Reverie

A woman leans against a sofa, gazing off into the distance. Her expression — calm, yet tinged with something lonely and…

The Sculpture Nearly Removed for Being Too Risqué: Carpeaux's The Dance

The Dance, by French sculptor Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, was commissioned by the architect Charles Garnier to adorn the ext…

A Name Born from Mockery: Impressionism

Most of what fills level 5 of the Musée d'Orsay is Impressionist painting. Knowing a bit about the movement before divin…

A Scandal Even at the Salon des Refusés: Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe

Submitted to the Salon of 1863, Manet's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe was rejected. The jury that year was unusually strict, r…

A Painting Pawned for Rent: The Mold Behind Monet's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe

Monet's Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe was originally a single canvas, though it now hangs as two separate pieces. While workin…

Same Sea, Different Light: Monet's Rough Sea at Étretat

True to its title, this Monet painting captures the sea in a particularly turbulent mood. Monet was fascinated by how th…

The Painting Criticized for Ignoring the Basics: Monet's Poppy Field at Argenteuil

Argenteuil was the village where Monet lived, and this painting captures a family outing there. It was shown at the very…

A Painter Who Never Needed the Money: Caillebotte's The Floor Scrapers

True to its title, this Caillebotte painting shows workers scraping a wooden floor. The handling of light pouring in thr…

A Camera's Eye Backstage: Degas's The Dance Class

Degas painted ballet dancers obsessively — they were, in fact, his favorite subject by far. But what drew him wasn't the…

I Am No One's Muse: Gonzalès's A Loge at the Théâtre des Italiens

A woman reclines in a theater box, looking straight out at the viewer, and the effect is almost as if she's addressing y…

The Stationmaster's Hidden Role in Monet's Gare Saint-Lazare

Today Gare Saint-Lazare is a hub where seven rail lines converge, one of Paris's busiest transit points. But the station…

A Name Erased for Being a Woman: Morisot's The Cradle

The woman quietly gazing at her newborn in the cradle is Edma, Berthe Morisot's older sister. Her eyes hold a mix of pos…

Not a Pretty Ballerina: Degas's Little Dancer of Fourteen Years

Step close to the sculpture and look at the girl's face: there's no bright smile here, none of the glamour of a performa…

Why Home, Garden, and Family: Cassatt's Little Girl in a Garden

A girl sits quietly absorbed in her sewing, surrounded by a garden. The cool, green garden air and the girl's calm expre…

Same Dance, Different Warmth: Renoir's Dance in the City and Dance in the Country

Renoir, who loved painting dancers, created two companion pieces both originally titled simply Dance. Each painting's ch…

Giverny as a Laboratory: Monet's Water Lilies

Water lilies were arguably the single most important subject in Monet's entire career as a painter — he returned to the…

Thirty Canvases from the Same Window: Monet's Rouen Cathedral Series

About an hour and a half by train northwest of Paris sits the city of Rouen, and its cathedral became the subject of one…

A Brush Tied to His Hand: Renoir's Bathers

There's an amusing twist buried in this late Renoir: the two women at the center of the canvas aren't bathing at all — t…

What to Know Before You See Van Gogh

Ask most people to name the most famous painter in the world, and plenty would say Van Gogh. Part of the reason may be t…

A Night Sky with No Black Paint: Van Gogh's Starry Night Over the Rhône

If you had to name the single most famous painting at the Musée d'Orsay, it might well be this one — Vincent van Gogh's…

A Likeness Deeper Than a Photograph: Van Gogh's Self-Portrait

Van Gogh was unusually prolific when it came to self-portraits — he left behind more than 43 of them, and this is one.

Remaking Millet: Van Gogh's Siesta (Noon Rest)

This painting is Van Gogh's reworking of another artist's piece, reimagined in his own style. That artist was Jean-Franç…

A Shadow With No Source: Van Gogh's The Church at Auvers

Auvers-sur-Oise, a small village outside Paris, is where Van Gogh spent the last two months of his life. This painting d…

Color Over Accuracy: Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles

Bedroom in Arles depicts the room where Van Gogh lived during his time in Arles. This painting isn't interested in captu…

Two Men Who Recognized the Same Loneliness: Van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet

The man in this painting is Dr. Paul Gachet, who accompanied Van Gogh through the final years of his life. The portrait…

Pixels Stamped by Hand: Seurat's The Circus

In an era of rapid industrialization and urbanization, the circus had become one of France's favorite pastimes. The audi…

A Painting Born of Grief: Signac's Women at the Well

This painting is set in Saint-Tropez, a resort town on France's southeastern coast. Signac combined real landmarks from…

Eternity Over the Instant: Signac's Woman with an Umbrella

The model for this painting is Berthe Roblès, Signac's wife. Given that he was painting his own wife, it's easy to imagi…

Beyond What the Eye Sees: How to Read Cézanne

Cézanne is counted, alongside Van Gogh and Gauguin, as one of the defining figures of Post-Impressionism. His paintings,…

An Anxious Face Before a Departure: Gauguin's Self-Portrait with Yellow Christ

Painted before his departure for Tahiti, this is Gauguin's Self-Portrait with Yellow Christ. Gauguin, alongside Van Gogh…

Joy, in Tahitian: Gauguin's Arearea

Arearea means "joy" in Tahitian. What exactly was the joy Gauguin found on the island?

Two Garments, Two Cultures: Gauguin's Tahitian Women on the Beach

Two women appear in this painting. The one on the left wears a pareo, the traditional garment of Tahiti's native people,…

A Horse That Turns Green: Gauguin's The White Horse

Painted during Gauguin's second stay in Tahiti, this canvas is steeped in the same intense exoticism found in his other…

Why He Mixed Egg Into Oil Paint: Toulouse-Lautrec's Jane Avril Dancing

The composition here is simple. Jane Avril, mid-dance, dominates the foreground, drawn larger than anything else in the…

An Unposed Moment: Toulouse-Lautrec's Grooming

A woman sits slumped on the floor with her back turned to us. Her red hair falls loose and unbound as she quietly washes…

Intimacy Without Spectacle: Toulouse-Lautrec's In Bed

Two women lie quietly together in bed. Both with short hair, they either gaze at each other or rest leaning against one…

Seven Years of Work, Rejected Anyway: Rodin's Balzac

Balzac, the towering figure of 19th-century French literary realism, was honored with a memorial statue commissioned by…

The Thinker Looking Down into Dante's Inferno: Rodin's The Gates of Hell

This work is the plaster study Rodin made as a trial run before casting the Gates of Hell in bronze. Since he died witho…

Twenty Years Spent Looking at One Mountain: Cézanne's Mont Sainte-Victoire

Like Cézanne's Bathers, this painting was made in his hometown of Aix-en-Provence. Mont Sainte-Victoire, the mountain na…

A Soft Touch on Rough Canvas: Degas's Women Ironing

This painting is set in a Paris laundry. Laundries are gradually disappearing today, but in the late 19th century, anywh…

Everyday Life Built from Dots: Pissarro's Woman Hanging Out the Wash

The woman's posture, arms raised high as she hangs out the laundry, carries within it the rhythm of everyday life and th…

A Code of Gratitude Hidden in Paint: Manet's Portrait of Émile Zola

The man in this painting is Émile Zola. Not a familiar name in Korea perhaps, but in France, he's celebrated as a famous…

Light Guarded by a Failing Body: Manet's White Peonies

This is one of Manet's signature still lifes. In the final years of his life, his health declined sharply, and unable to…

A Composition That Calculates Where Your Eye Lands: Renoir's Bal du moulin de la Galette

This is a painting you've probably seen somewhere before. The setting is the Moulin de la Galette in Montmartre. Origina…

Open Yet Solidly Built: Caillebotte's Sailboats at Argenteuil

A clear sky, shimmering ripples, and white sailboats soaked in bright light are the first things that catch the eye here…

A Moment of Light Captured in Tiny Flecks: Renoir's The Swing

Three adults and one small child stand in a sunlit forest clearing, gathered around a swing. Warm early-summer light sca…

The Real Face Behind the Glamour: Toulouse-Lautrec's Portrait of a Montmartre Woman

Toulouse-Lautrec painted this honest portrait of one of the women living in his own neighborhood of Montmartre. The woma…

A Human Moment Behind the Stage: Toulouse-Lautrec's Woman Pulling Up Her Stocking

A woman stands bent slightly forward in the corner of a room, pulling up her stocking. There's no pose here, no artifice…

Realism in a Glass of Absinthe: Degas's In a Café

Inside a Paris café, a man and a woman sit at a table. They look like a couple, yet something cold hangs between them. T…

A Model Identified Only in 2018: Courbet's The Origin of the World

The title alone tells you exactly what this painting is about. It's on a completely different level than any nude we've…

Reality Instead of Perfection: Courbet's Woman with a Dog

A woman sits comfortably on the ground in a natural setting, a small dog resting beside her. At first glance it resemble…

The Darkest Painting by the Painter of Light: Monet's Camille on Her Deathbed

True to his nickname, "the painter of light," most of Monet's paintings are filled with brightness. But among the small…

Pain Passes, Beauty Remains: Renoir's Young Girls at the Piano

This late work by Renoir shows almost none of the traits found in his early Impressionist paintings. His style had shift…

One Canvas, Two Viewpoints: Cézanne's Apples and Oranges

People often name four famous apples in the history of ideas: the apple of Adam and Eve, Newton's apple, the apple in th…

Bodies Painted Purely from Memory: Cézanne's Bathers

Bathers was a subject Cézanne returned to so often that he produced more than two hundred paintings on this theme alone.…

Figures Built from Spheres, Cylinders, and Cones: Cézanne's The Card Players

Cézanne painted several works on the theme of card players, and this is the most famous among them. He drew his inspirat…

Mystery in a Bunch of Violets: Manet's Portrait of Berthe Morisot

Berthe Morisot, dressed in black, holds a small bunch of violets in her hand. The color contrast created by those small…

The Heart Hidden Behind a Big Nose: Lautrec's Coquelin as Cyrano

A man's face on stage, sword raised high — and the first thing you notice is his unusually large nose. He's the celebrat…

Painted 380 Times, Her Face Almost Never Shown: Bonnard's Bathroom

A woman submerged in a bathtub, her face turned away, her body wrapped in soft, warm color. The painter, Pierre Bonnard,…