Musée d'Orsay

Musée d'Orsay review

The Musée d'Orsay follows a chronological route, from the ground floor to the upper level and then to the mezzanine, showing links between Impressionist painters and their forerunners. Running down the centre of the tracks,
a central sculpture aisle takes in monuments and maidens by Rude, Barrye and Carrier-Belleuse, but the outstanding pieces are by Carpeaux, including his controversial La Danse for the façade of the Palais Garnier. The Lille side,
on the right of the central aisle, is dedicated to the Romantics and history painters: Ingres and Amaury-Duval contrast with the Romantic passion of Delacroix's North African period. Further on are early Degas canvases and works by Symbolists Moreau and Puvis de Chavannes.

The first rooms to the Seine side of the main aisle are given over to the Barbizon landscape painters: Corot, Daubigny and Millet. One room is dedicated to Courbet, with the Artist and his Studio, Burial at Ornans and L'Origine du Monde. This floor also covers pre-1870 works by the Impressionists, including Manet's Olympia.

Upstairs are the Impressionists, Pissarro, Renoir and Caillebotte, Manet's Déjeuner sur l'Herbe, Monet's paintings of Rouen cathedral and works by Degas. Among the Van Goghs are Church at Auvers and Wheat Field with Crows. You'll also find the primitivist jungle of Le Douanier Rousseau, the gaudy lowlife of Toulouse-Lautrec, the colourful exoticism of Gauguin's Breton and Tahitian periods, and Cézanne's still lifes, landscapes and the Card Players.
On the mezzanine are works by the Nabi painters - Vallotton, Denis, Roussel, Bonnard and Vuillard. Several rooms are given over to art nouveau decorative arts, including furniture by Majorelle, and Gallé and Lalique ceramics.