Painting

The origin of the painting collections in the Musée d'Orsay goes back to the Musée du Luxembourg, which was founded by Louis XVIII, in 1818, to exhibit the works of living artists. The arrangement was that ten years after the death of the artist, works whose "glory had been confirmed by universal opinion" would be transferred to the Louvre; the others were sent to other institutions or departments. At the beginning, the collections in the Musée du Luxembourg were almost exclusively built up by purchases at the Salon. They therefore reflected the official taste of the period with an emphasis on history painting, portraits and classical landscapes according to a clearly established hierarchy of genres.
Until the 1880s, the Musée du Luxembourg remained closed to the latest experiments in art. Courbet and Millet, for example, were not exhibited there in their lifetime. It took a concerted effort by the artists, their families, collectors and some civil servants for contemporary art at last to enter French national collections.

It was initially private generosity which enabled French museums to open their doors to the most innovative artists. Donated by the artist's sister, A Burial at Ornans by Courbet entered the Louvre in 1881. Next came Millet's Spring given by Mrs Hartmann in 1887 and Gleaners by the same artist, donated by Mrs Pommery in 1890. Alfred Chauchard's rich collection brought a formidable ensemble of paintings by the Barbizon School, including Millet's famous Angelus, in 1909. But the second half of the 19th century was also characterised by the growing influence of art critics and dealers in the art world. The traditional system of the Salon and private patronage was poorly adapted to the expansion of the art market and artists' reputations increasingly depended on the opinions of critics and the choices made by art dealers.This change was conducive to the development and recognition of new schools. Thus, in 1890, a group of subscribers led by Monet managed to open the doors of the Luxembourg Museum to Manet's Olympia even though the artist had died in 1883. However the change in mentality was not a smooth process as is shown by the episode of the Caillebotte bequest. Caillebotte was a friend and patron of the Impressionists and when he died in 1894 he bequeathed his collection to the state. It numbered over sixty paintings by Degas, Manet, Cézanne, Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Pissarro and even Millet. Faced with a lukewarm reception from the administration of the Fine Arts Department, the trustees, including Renoir, were determined that Caillebotte's wishes would be honoured. Caillebotte wanted all the works in his bequest to be displayed and not relegated to the storerooms. Discussions dragged on for nearly two years before an agreement was signed in February 1896, under which the national museums kept only forty works but formally undertook to exhibit them. Despite these difficulties and the official protest lodged by the Academy of Fine Arts, the Caillebotte bequest swept the Impressionists into the Musée du Luxembourg.At the same time the State began to buy the works of more modern artists. Examples include The Poor Fisherman by Puvis de Chavannes in 1887, A Studio at Les Batignolles by Fantin-Latour and Girls at the Piano by Renoir in 1892 as well as Carrière's The Artist's Family in 1896. In the years that followed, the Impressionist collection was enlarged through gifts from the artists' heirs or from major collectors. Between 1883 and 1927, Etienne Moreau-Nélaton made several gifts and bequests which brought the national collections paintings such as Manet's Lunch on the Grass. In 1911, Isaac de Camondo bequeathed a set of works including four of Monet's Cathedrals. French painting was not the only section to benefit from this development. In the late 19th century, the Musée du Luxembourg opened up to foreign schools, with in particular Summer Night by Winslow Homer and Whistler's Mother. The foreign section eventually became large enough to justify the creation of a separate museum in the Jeu de Paume in 1922. In 1929, the entire Impressionist section was transferred to the Louvre.

 

In 1937, the Musée du Luxembourg was replaced by the Musée d'Art Moderne, located in the new Palais de Tokyo, which had been built for the International Exhibition. Its programme began with Neo-Impressionism (without Seurat), the Pont-Aven School (without Gauguin) and the Nabis.

With the reorganisation of the Louvre, the Impressionist collections moved again in 1947. They were now housed in the Musée du Jeu Paume and included works from Boudin to Seurat, as well as those by Toulouse-Lautrec or Henri Rousseau. In the post-war period, the collections were enlarged by an active acquisitions policy which encouraged gifts by artists. Marginally higher funding, the help of the Friends of the Louvre and private generosity facilitated several essential acquisitions, particularly paintings by Seurat, Cézanne or Redon. Growing public enthusiasm for the Impressionists gradually made the Jeu de Paume too small to exhibit the works safely and comfortably. In 1977, it was decided to convert the disused Orsay railway station into a museum for the art of the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century. This project also solved the problem raised that year by the installation of the Musée d'Art Moderne in the Centre Georges Pompidou: a home had to be found for works which fell outside the programme of the new museum (the Pont-Aven school, Neo-Impressionism and the Nabis).

The Musée d'Orsay gathered the collections from the Jeu de Paume, works left in the Palais de Tokyo by the Musée d'Art Moderne – which were exhibited from 1977 to 1986 as "a foretaste of the Musée d'Orsay" – and works from the Louvre dating from the second half of the 19th century. However the newly formed collection would not have been sufficient to give a full picture of the complexities of a period that was unusually fertile.

An acquisition policy was implemented in 1978. Paintings which had been scattered throughout France when the Musée du Luxembourg was closed were called in, sometimes in exchange for other works so as not to penalise the museums which had looked after them for so many years. They reinforced Realist painting from 1848 to 1850, late Romanticism, the eclecticism of the Second Empire and the official art of the Third Republic. The second concern was to complement, balance and consolidate the collections to give a better picture of this particularly rich period of art history. In 1985, the museum bought The Talisman by Sérusier, which completed a series of prestigious gifts of works by Bonnard and Redon. Series of canvases by the Neo-Impressionists or the Pont Aven school testify to the generosity of artists' descendants or great collectors.Otherwise, the Musée d'Orsay from the outset benefited from the system of acquisition in lieu (dation), which enables donors to pay estate duties by giving works to the museum. Paintings by some of the greatest artists have joined the collections over the years by this means. Among them are: Portrait of Marcel Proust by Blanche (1989); four Women in the Garden (1984) and A Middle-Class Afternoon (1988) by Bonnard; several Bathers and The Temptation of St Anthony (1982), The Lawyer and a Portrait of Mrs Cézanne (1991), and Christ in Limbo (2005) by Cézanne; Nude Woman with a Dog (1979), The Origin of the World (1995) by Courbet; two pastels of Ballerinas by Degas (1979 and 1997); The Minuet of Princess Maleine (1999) and Landscape with Green Trees (2001) by Denis; Bulls Fighting (1976) and Rochefort's Escape (1984) by Manet; Luxury, Calm and Voluptuousness by Matisse (1985); La rue Montorgueil (1982), The Picnic (1987) and Effect of Wind (2002) by Monet; a set of fifteen works by Redon (1988); City Ball (1978) and Julie Manet (1999) by Renoir; Woman, Side View (1990) and Interior (2001) by Vuillard – all told, nearly one hundred paintings and pastels have joined the museum through the acquisition in lieu system.Purchases have focused particularly on foreign schools with Rose Bushes under the Trees by Klimt (1980), The Wheel of Fortune by Burne-Jones (1980), Summer Night at Aagaardstrand by Munch (1986), Fishing Boats by Mondrian (1987), Rest by Hammershøi (1996), View of Capolago by Giovanni Giacometti (1997) or Snow-Covered Landscape by Amiet (1999). Since 1986, the Musée d'Orsay has also been able to buy works by some of the greatest French painters from its period. Key purchases include: The Boy with the Cat by Renoir (1992); Portrait Of the Artist with the Yellow Christ by Gauguin (1994); Berthe Morisot With a Bunch of Violets by Manet (1998); Galatea by Gustave Moreau (1997); and Portrait of Paul Ranson dressed as a Nabi by Sérusier (2004).The generosity of private donors remains one of the main sources of the enrichment of the collections. Each year major works enter the museum thanks to various gifts, donations or bequests. For example, the outstanding anonymous donation, with life interest reserved, in 2000, which brought the museum twenty-four works: five paintings by Bonnard, five by Vuillard, three by Cézanne, three by Seurat, two by Degas, two by Fantin-Latour and one each by Monet, Manet, Hammershøi and Mondrian. Lastly the museum is able to buy works for the national collections in auction rooms and galleries. Among these purchases in recent years are: Misia at her Dressing Table by Vallotton (2004), Louis XIV Receiving the Great Condé by Gérôme (2004), The Woodcutter by Hodler (2005) and October Evening by Maurice Denis (2005). Far from stopping with the heritage it received from the Musée du Luxembourg and the Louvre, the Musée d'Orsay's painting collection has steadily evolved. Year after year, gifts, acquisitions in lieu and purchases keep the collection alive and offer the public an increasingly complete, fresh picture of a lively, varied period, one of the most creative in the history of art.