Museums in Paris: Musée d'Orsay #6

The 10 Year Plan has many benefits.

One benefit of spending an entire year in a city is enjoying changes that occur during the year. 

While we were on hiatus, there were two changes at the Musée d'Orsay. 

One change is something that we had already read about in the newspaper. The Orsay acquired five new Gustave Caillebotte paintings.  An unexpected bequest from the granddaughter of Caillebotte's butler resulted in five rarely seen paintings coming to the museum.  

Unike most French painters, Caillebotte was somewhat wealthy.  He made his money the old-fashioned way . . . he inherited it.  Caillebotte lived well, which included employing the same butler for many years.  Caillebotte gave several of his paintings to his butler, Jean Daurelle, including portraits of Daurelle and his son.  

The five newly donated paintings are now on display in the Impressionism galleries.  Here they are. 

The donated paintings hang alongside other Caillebotte works, including a self-portrait and one of the marine paintings for which he is well known.

A second change at the Orsay occurred during our hiatus.  A new gallery was opened on the top floor of the museum to house Post-Impressionism works and other works from the same time period.  As a result, the museum's amazing collection of Van Gogh's, Gauguin's, Cezanne's and other masterpieces have a permanent home.  Before, the paintings were scattered around the museum and were often moved, making them hard to find.

Among the paintings in the new gallery is Van Gogh's La Salle de Danse à Arles.  Marie-Chantal noted that the style is similar to Gaugin's style.  She is correct.  The work was painted when Van Gogh and Gaugin were roommates in Arles. 

We enjoyed viewing some of our favorite paintings, most of which already appeared in earlier blog posts.  Below are some other interesting works that Jean-Claude found in the new gallery, including some architectural drawings from the late 1800's.   

Thanks for visiting the Musée d'Orsay with us and seeing the recent changes.