There are many paintings that stand out from these ensembles - universally celebrated masterpieces such as Millet’s monumentally simple composition L’Angelus,or, in complete contrast, Renoir’s Le Bal du Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre, with its shimmering touch and colours.

Attention goes first to the ensembles: Courbet and Millet, who had an enduring influence, Corot and the School of Barbizon. The superb collection of Manets and the group of works by Fantin-Latour are impressive. Here too are the major works of Puvis de Chavannes, a painter whose heritage was felt well into the twentieth century. Monet, Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley, as well as Degas and Cezanne, are all represented by important ensembles, as are the artists of the next generation: Gauguin, Van Gogh and Toulouse-Lautrec, the Neo-lmpressionists, Seurat,Signac and Cross, and the Symbolist movement with Moreau and Redon.

The period’s other artistic trends are also shown. Whether Couture, Meissonier, Cabanel, Gerome or Delaunay, or Breton, Tissot and Bastien-Lepage, or again Laurens, Detaille and de Neuville, many of these more academic artists enjoyed glory and held great authority during their lifetime. This panorama reflects the global pre-eminence then enjoyed by French art.By the same token, foreign artists are not so well represented, often only by one work: Whistler and Homer, whose paintings entered the collection back in the nineteenth century,  or again Klimt, Hodler,Munch, Khnopff, Bocklin, Burne-Jones, Mondrian,Amiet and Hammershei - all recent acquisitions and welcome extensions of the collection.

There are many paintings that stand out from these ensembles - universally celebrated masterpieces such as Miller’s monumentally simple composition L’Angelus,or, in complete contrast, Renoir’s Le Bal du Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre, with its shimmering touch and colours.

The Musee d’Orsay offers a particularly clear reflection of the effervescence of this period, which was one of the most creative in the history of art, and remains one of the most popular with the public. Its collection has grown continuously since it was first put together in the nineteenth century. At Orsay, the art of the period is presented in all its diversity, just as it is in this book.

Painting First

Serge Lemoine

Introduction

Michel Laclotte

Eclectism and realism

Genevieve Lacambre

Impressionism

Claire Freches- Thory

Post-Impressionism

Claire Freches- Thory

Naturalism and symbolism

Genevieve Lacambre

After 1900

Claire Freches- Thory

Index