Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Dancing at the Moulin de la Galette is the highlight of the Renoir collection in the Orsay Museum. Renoir painted this picture in 1876 in the open air to capture exactly the light as it filtered through the tree leaves.

The painting looks really joyful and colorful, and you might say, just as the case is with Rouen Cathedrals by Claude Monet, that the painter has given much more thought dedicated to the colour scheme (white, blue, yellow, green and pink) than to the exact shapes. Another detail I?d like to mention is: look at the dresses of the people. Don?t they look just like the ones audience wore during the early days of the famous Moulin Rouge cabaret as you see it on old posters??

Now, to the second part of the pair I always mixed up, namely to Claude Monet. Now, the painting in the photo is ‘Blue Waterlilies’, done in 1919, but the Monet faves for me in the Orsay museum are the ‘Rouen Cathedral’ series. Monet has frequently done paintings in series – waterlilies are from a series, too. Back to the matter of Rouen Cathedrals, however.
In the 1890s Monet created close to 30 paintings of Rouen’s cathedral, though only several of them are now in the Orsay Museum (among them Rouen Cathedral: Full Sunset). He studies the effects of changing lights of its facades (he preferred the south-western point in particular), putting much more emphasis on colour than on the shape. Monet said he got the inspiration for the series when he watched how the lights were falling on a simple shape of a country church.

Now, don’t make the error I always made – confusing Edouard Manet (the one we’re talking about now) with Claude Monet. I guess I tended to mix them up as their surnames sound quite alike in Russian.

The most noticeable Edouard Manet piece in the Orsay museum is ‘Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe’, which (I guess) can be roughly translated from French (I am no expert in the language, though) as ‘People Breakfasting on the Grass’, painted in year 1863. The painting’s forest setting with a nude woman and two fully clothed men in the foreground sent shock waves through respectable society when it was first exhibited. Now, I must say it’s somewhat surprising… Where were the feminists in those days??? Only joking… Besides ‘Le Dejeuner sur l’Herbe’, look also for ‘Olympia’ if you’re interested in Edouard Manet. By the way, it created another scandal by depicting a woman lounging on her bed and wearing nothing but a flower in her hair and high-heeled shoes; she's attended by an African maid in the background. Zola called Manet "a man among eunuchs."

The highlight of the Rodin collection in the Orsay museum is the monumental composition called ‘The Gates of Hell’ (1880 – 1917 – took Rodin quite a considerable amount of time to finish this one). Now, I am not the greatest arts expert in the world (and, besides that, while I was a child I just hated spending hours in the museums – not any more, however, it’s quite a reverse now), but I had an instant sensation that I have already seen… parts of the composition. Yet, here it was in its entirety.

If I ever found out why that was, it’s only because I was humble enough to read up on this sculpture and Rodin in general when I got out of the museum. Actually, what happened was that Rodin included several figures he had already created into the group. The Thinker and The Kiss are the most prominent. The composition’s certainly monumental and somewhat scary – those skulls in the background surprised me rather unpleasantly as I’ve not noticed it in the first instance.

Architects created one of the world's great museums from an old rail station, the neoclassical Gare d'Orsay, across the Seine from the Louvre and the Tuileries. The Orsay boasts an astounding collection devoted to the watershed years 1848 to 1914, with a treasure trove by the big names plus all the lesser-known groups (the symbolists, pointillists, nabis, realists, and late Romantics – I do not know in detail what half of these lesser known movements are). The 80 galleries also include Belle Epoque furniture, photographs, objets d'art, and architectural models. Now, I’ve been always told that several Russian museums hold a considerable collections of Impressionists and Post – Impressionists, but after visiting Musee d’Orsay I see clearly that they are not quite in the same league.

The Orsay is covered by an arching glass roof allowing in floods of light – a necessary arrangement as most of the painters whose masterpieces are on display considered colours (and light, consequently) of paramount importance to their works. The Musee d’Orsay displays works ranging from the creations of academic and historic painters like Ingres (La Source) to Romanticists like Delacroix (Tiger Hunt), to neo-realists like Courbet and Daumier. The Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, including Manet, Monet, Cézanne, van Gogh, and Renoir (I have put in separate tips on the works by these folk shown in Orsay Museum) share space with the fauves, Matisse, the cubists, and the expressionists in a setting once used by Orson Welles to film a nightmarish scene in The Trial, based on Kafka's unfinished novel. You'll find Millet's sunny wheat fields, Barbizon landscapes, Corot's mists, and parti-colored Tahitian Gauguins all in the same hall.

But it's the Impressionists who draw the crowds. When the nose-in-the-air Louvre chose not to display their works, a great rival was born. I bet Louvre’s consumed with envy – who wouldn’t be?? But, on the other hand, Louvre’s got enough on its plate, right?

No visit to Paris is complete withougt a visit to the Muse D'Orsay to see Monet's Water Lillies. It's a truly amazingly breathtaking experience. If you don't have time for the Louvre but still want to take in some excellent art in a less crowed environment, the Muse D'Orsay is for you.

Will you scream if you see one more Egyptian crypt or Renaissance triptych?

Time to move on to the Musee d'Orsay. This modern art museum will ease your eyes and spirit with gorgeous Monets, Manets, Van Goghs, Renoir... Most shocking painting? The Origin of The World. You'll see why.

This converted train station houses an amazing collections of impressionist paintings. But, don't try to visit on Mondays because they're closed.

This old train station The was built within two short years for the World Fair in 1900. From 1900 to 1939, Orsay station was the head of the southwestern French railroad network. In 1975, the "Direction des Musées de France" wanted to install a new museum in the train station. The building was remodeled between 1979-1986 and inaugurated by President François Mitterrand.