Thematic visits for adult groups

By viewing a selection of masterpieces, from paintings to decorative arts, you will gain an overview of the museum's collection.

The principal art movements since the emergence of Realism, circa 1848, are covered through a selection of carefully chosen works of art.

Many 19th century paintings and sculptures caused a stir at the time. These provocative works were not the limited to the avant-garde. The Salon also attracted scandal when public attention was sought.

In a reaction against the academic painting of the Salons, Realists like Courbet or Impressionists like Manet set out to revitalise forms and subjects in an exciting ferment of different talents. Gauguin, Van Gogh, and then Cézanne would go further, each interpreting the idea of “modernity” extolled by Baudelaire.

An increasing number of commissions for decorating public, urban spaces led to a real mania for statuary. However, many sculptors freed themselves from the constraints of the commission, and brought in new subjects, materials and techniques.

The desire to paint outdoors encouraged artists to use lighter shades, and to be much more free in their use of colour and texture.

After 1840, Realist painters reacted against those who upheld the vision of the ideal or the dream. This reached its peak with the Barbizon School, Millet and Courbet, before settling down into the Naturalism of the 1880s.

With its master of an open, light style of painting, the Impressionists revitalised not only rural and urban landscape painting, but also the portrait and still life.

After 1880, from Van Gogh to Matisse, a new generation of artists added to the experiments and painting styles, upholding the tradition of Monet and Renoir.

Reacting against all forms of Realism, Symbolist art, represented mainly by Gustave Moreau, Paul Gauguin and Odilon Redon, tried to idealise the real or delve into an inner world.

The portrait, whether idealised, realistic or a caricature, reflects both the diversity of aesthetic studies at the time and the influence of social conditions.

After 1848, painters and sculptors still bowed to the cult of the hero: military and political leaders, scientists, writers, or even a child who died for the Revolution (Bara).

From Vigée Le Brun to Camille Claudel, those women Mallarmé called "the dissidents of their sex" continued to proclaim their right to be considered artists in their own right. Conversely, the image of women on occasions remained trapped in entrenched stereotypes.

Landscape painting, reflecting the frustrations with an increasingly industrialised world, continued to move away from classical conventions.

The art of evoking the silent world of inanimate objects, and giving it a voice, has continued in France since Chardin. Starting with Realism, it became a major genre in new painting.

This station was built by the architect Victor Lalou, to bring the public to the Great Universal Exhibition of 1900. It combined the most modern techniques of the time with features from classical architecture. A journalist at the time wrote, with a certain prescience, "It would make a beautiful Palais des Beaux-Arts"!

As the railways developed, the privileged classes began to experience the joys of tourism. It was fashionable to go to regattas on the Seine, to bathe in the sea. Manet and Renoir became the heralds of this new "pursuit of happiness".

19th century society and mores can be seen in the styles of dress which artists portrayed in their role as historians of daily life.