Musee D’Orsay collection comes to Seoul
By Joon Soh
The Musee D’Orsay, one of the top Parisian museums, has undergone a series of renovations over the past two years, a facelift that’s nearing its end. These renovations have been an inconvenience to tourists in Paris, but they are a boon to art lovers in Asia, as some the museum’s best works have made their way here as a result.
Titled “Musee D’Orsay: Dream and Reality,“ an exhibition opened in June at the Seoul Arts Center in southern Seoul. Once the show ends its Seoul run on Sept. 25, it will travel to Singapore for four months before heading back to Paris next year.
This is not the first time that Musee D’Orsay artwork has come to Seoul; similar shows ran in 2000 and 2007, and the museum also lent some pieces to a Pierre-Auguste Renoir retrospective in 2009. However, this is by far the largest exhibit of works from the museum to be shown here, with a total of 134 paintings, drawings and photographs on display.
The majority of the works are from the late 19th and early 20th century with a focus on Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, which are the museum’s strengths. But outside of some notable paintings, a large part of the exhibit is composed of relatively minor works from that period. And while famous names like Gustave Courbet, Paul Gauguin and Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres are scattered throughout, many of the selected works are not immediately recognizable as theirs.
However, this does not make the exhibited pieces any less beautiful. For instance, Claude Monet may be better known for obsessively observing lily ponds and haystacks, but his bold handling of the furls of a dress (“Portrait de Madame Gaudibert,” 1868) or sailboats on a leisurely day (“Regatta in Argenteuil,” 1872) are just as breathtaking.
“Dream and Reality” does an excellent job of organizing the artwork around specific themes, which include mythology, family and modern life. The exhibition makes a case that art is a collective effort by artists of an era with similar sensibilities.
The show gives context to Jean-Francois Millet’s sentimental depictions of rural life or Edouard Manet’s wry observations of the 19th century bourgeois experience, showing how other artists struggled to express the same concerns.
This sense of shared subject matter is especially poignant in a group of paintings from the mid- to late 19th century, a period of continuous military conflict for France. Seen together, the paintings give a vivid sense of the distress and turmoil bought on by war.
The exhibition also features some of the world’s greatest works of art. There is a reason that “Starry Night, Arles“ (1888) by Vincent van Gogh, “Dancers Climbing the Stairs” (1879) by Edgar Degas and “Card Players” (1890-1895) by Paul Cezanne played a central role in the exhibition posters, and when seen up close, these paintings do not disappoint.
However, make sure to also spend some time with the show’s less familiar works, such as Cezanne’s “Gulf of Marseilles Seen From L’Estaque” (1885). The quiet landscape painting has a meditative quality that makes it worthwhile.
“Musee D’Orsay: Dream and Reality” will run through Sept. 25 at Hangaram Museum in Seoul Arts Center, southern Seoul. For more, go to www.orsay2011.co.kr or call (02) 325 -1077.