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Catching Up With the Orsay

I joined a tour of the Impressionists and their landscapes with an art historian (what a great career!) at the Musee d'Orsay and I was amazed that I've been living in Paris for over a year and haven't been to visit this museum yet. I've been here a few times before, but "dang! I could have been visiting this museum once a month! What have I been doing with my time?"

It's such a big, beautiful museum with some amazing works of art ... including some Impressionist masterworks!

For example, I studied this piece in art history class but am always wowed by how LARGE it is. My friend Alex is there for proportion. Money had to dig a ditch to drop the canvas to a height he could reach the top!
Monet's Garden Party. The Three Women on the Left Are the Same ... Monet's Wife
My favorite Degas sculpture is here, too, and she's my own personal touchstone; there's one at the Met in NYC as well, and I would often visit her there. Don't you just love that expression!? That gumption! That sass!
Degas' 14-Year-Old Dancer
Monet's waterlilies are always delightful to see. The colors are so vivid and stunning and this canvas is, again, huge. Studying prints just don't do it justice. (Now, if I could only get to Giverney, the garden where he painted this, before we leave.)

There is so much more to see in this museum, and if you arrive early and in the winter, there's no line at all.

After the tour ended, I walked around for another hour and caught this Bonnard painting ...

Bonnard: "The Terrace Family"
It's a cute little family portrait, but check out the side-eye the little girl is giving her dad. You can practically hear her thoughts: "you're really going to sit like that for the painting? You are so embarrassing!"

Bonnard's Champion Side-eye
I laughed when I saw it and had to take a picture. Museums are so fun!



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