This Saturday marks the opening of Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay at the de Young Museum in Golden Gate Park. The show is comprised of paintings from the Paris museum’s permanent collection, which has been lent out while it undergoes renovations for its 25th anniversary in 2011. The Musée d’Orsay is considered the foremost repository of 19th-century French art.
Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay showcases over 100 paintings by Impressionist masters including Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, and Gustave Courbet. The opening placard in the exhibit sets the stage:
Rivalries among artists, collectors, dealers, and critics animate the art world. This was never truer than in 19th-century Paris, then Europe’s artistic capital. Birth of Impressionism focuses on this contentious artistic community and its varying exhibition strategies. The tumultuous social and political events of the 1860s and 1870s shook the foundations of the state-run Salon, Paris’s preeminent art forum. And competition among individual artists and different stylistic schools, as well as between the art establishment and aspiring newcomers, spurred dynamic tensions in French cultural life. This tension intensified after the Impressionists launched a series of independent exhibitions in 1874.
Yesterday, the de Young held its press event where my cub reporter was on hand to preview the exhibition. Unfortunately Mayor Gavin Newsom was nearly an hour late(!), so the schedule lagged. My reporter had to leave before she could enjoy a curator-led tour of the show, but she came away with plenty of details on the exhibition I can share with you.
Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay includes works by the famous masters who called France their home during the mid to late 19th century and from whose midst arose one of the most original and recognizable of all artistic styles, Impressionism. Known for its groundbreaking style of recognizable brush strokes, emphasis on light and its changing qualities, as well as its depiction of everyday subject matter, Impressionism sparked a dramatic turn toward more naturalistic art. The name of the movement is derived from the title of a Claude Monet work, Impression, Sunrise (Source: Wikipedia).
The Birth of Impressionism exhibition is full of legendary paintings from artists that have come to define the Impressionist movement. Edgar Degas’ paintings of race horses and ballet dancers demonstrate his masterful depiction of movement, while Monet’s inclusions demonstrate his brilliant exploration of the ever changing quality of light and color. Other Impressionist heavyweights like Pierre Auguste Renoir, Alred Sisley, Édouard Manet and Gustave Courbet are also featured in the show.
Aside from hosting the magnificent exhibition, the de Young had other exciting news to announce yesterday. The museum recently acquired Absinthe Drinkers (Les buveurs d’absinthe), 1881, by the French painter Jean-François Raffaëlli who is also featured in the show (view). Regarded as one of Raffaëlli’s most important paintings, it will temporarily grace the entrance of the Birth of Impressionism exhibition before settling into its permanent home at the Legion of Honor.
If you’ve only ever seen these magnificent artists in books or online, don’t miss this chance to see their work up close. Guy Cogeval, the President of Musée d’Orsay, was on hand for yesterday’s press event. He remarked that the lighting at the de Young galleries brought out features in the paintings that were not easily seen at the Musée, an old Paris railway station that reopened as a fine art museum in 1986.
Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay opens Saturday, May 22 and runs through September 6, 2010. Tickets are required to see the exhibition but museum members are entitled to up to 8 free tickets during the exhibition period. However members must reserve advanced tickets online. If you’re not a member yet, this might be a great time to join (you also get free entry to the Legion of Honor with your membership).
Edgar Degas | The Dancing Lesson (1873-1876) Courtesy of edgar-degas.org
Birth of Impressionism will be followed in the fall by the second touring exhibition from the great museum, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cezanne, and Beyond: Post–Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay. It will run from September 25, 2010 through January 18, 2011. One or the other exhibitions will also make stops in Nashville, Tennessee and Madrid, Spain. However the de Young is the only museum in the world to host both exhibitions.
Are you excited for this exhibition? I am and I have already secured my free member tickets for next weekend. I’ll be taking my art history teacher from high school with me; sort of my own personal audio tour. 😉
If you make it out to the exhibition, please leave your thoughts in the comments. Enjoy the show!
Sarah B.
Just love impressionism. Enjoyed all I saw and read! Thanks so much.
Love the Degas ballerinas.
The show is symphony of light and color. It will require several visits.
Loved it!!!
Learned so much more than I ever knew before-really enjoyed learning more about Manet- what a
pivotal character in this whole movement he was ! Loved the inside bits and quotes from the artists themselves- how I would have loved to meet that group every night after closing shop for a glass of wine, a lively discussion and inspiration!