Musee d'Orsay

The last major stop on my March 2010 Parisian tour with my friend, E., was at the Musee d'Orsay.  It houses mostly French art created from the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth.  There are a lot of the heavy hitters of the art world represented in this museum.  There are pieces by Monet, Manet, Degas, Renior, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Cezanne, Courbet, Millet, Toulouse-Lautrec, and on and on.  The Musee d'Orsay is housed in a Beaux-Arts train station.  Not only is the artwork fabulous, the atmosphere is extremely impressive as well.

The museum was being renovated at the time of our visit.  A large portion of the building was closed and many pieces of art had been relocated.  Although it made for tighter quarters, the relocation process had been tastefully done and did not detract from viewing the artwork.

The guide books advise to arrive when the museum opens.  We got up early and made sure that we were there when the doors opened.  Unfortunately everyone else visiting the Musee d'Orsay had also read the guide books.  We arrived at the same time as several large tour groups.  Thankfully we had bought tickets in advance so we didn't have to wait in a long tine to enter.  We did get stuck among many, many, many other visitors while walking through the exhibits though.

My favorite aspects of Impressionist artwork are the squiggly marks, the dashes of paint, the brush scrubbing, and all those fine details that look messy up close but wonderful when standing at a distance.  I had been excited to easily view the painterly marks in real life.  I quickly became discouraged when I had to trot at what I considered too quick of a pace, pushed along by the throngs of people behind me.  There were hordes of teenagers who couldn't have cared less about where they were and what they were viewing.  There were also tourists who were lining up to take pictures of their friends in front of the most famous pieces.  I felt very claustrophobic and annoyed that I couldn't see the artwork without others standing in front of it.

After being at the museum for about an hour, I tried to take a different approach in order to salvage this experience.  Instead of being exasperated by the people standing in front of the paintings, I decided to think of them as a vital part of the museum environment.  I could have more time with The Luncheon on the Grass in a book or online anyways.  Could I enjoy it more by thinking of the people viewing it as part of the painting?

I began to take photographs of the people while they stood in front of the pieces.  Once my agenda changed, my enjoyment increased.  I stood back and let what had previously annoyed me become my focus.  It was more interesting when I was making my own artwork than trying to jostle elbows to be front and center with the other tourists.  It is amazing what a difference a change of perspective makes.  I do hope that I will get another chance to visit the Musee d'Orsay again.  I also hope that the next time I go more people will decide to visit other attractions that day.