Paintings in the Musee d'Orsay

by Robert Rosenblum

Hundreds of paintings are reproduced in a guide to the Paris museum and accompanied by essays by a renowned art historian on Realism, Impressionism, Symbolism, and many other topics

Genres: Art, France, Art History

686 pages, Hardcover

First published September 15, 1989

About the author

Robert Rosenblum (24 July 1927 - 6 December 2006) was a curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and a professor at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. He is the author of multiple volumes on modern and contemporary art, including The Paintings of August Strindberg and Paintings in the Musee d'Orsay. Rosenblum is the recipient of a Frank Jewett Mather Award for Distinction in Art Criticism.

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over 800 paintings on display in a well thought/ordered presentation with a perfect amount of introductory text. By using this Paris museum's fantastic collection, there is a great variation of artists.

Wiki: Musée d'Orsay
Orsay Museum is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It houses the largest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces in the world, by painters including Berthe Morisot, Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin, and van Gogh. Many of these works were held at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume prior to the museum's opening in 1986.

1. The Establishment in France, 1848-1880
2. Varieties of Realism
3. The 1860's
4. The Impressionist Decade
5. After Impressionism
6. Symbolism
7. Turn of the Century

Easy 5*. I wish there were some pictures of the museum itself here. The old railway station on Wiki looks like a scene from the movie "Hugo". I'd like to see the additional sculpture and photography inside the museum.

[Anna C · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Robert Rosenblum commentary is ludicrously overwritten, and some of his takes are a little strange. For example, he criticizes Renoir many times for his portrayal of the female nude, but lets far worse offenders- ***ahem Gaugain*** totally off the hook.

Still, a fantastic collection of paintings, even if this isn't a complete catalogue. Good color fidelity, and the full-page detail views are to die for. In many ways, this book is as good as an actual trip to the Musee d'Orsay. Maybe even better, because at the real d'Orsay you have to deal with Parisians!

[Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heel 2023 en stukjes '22 en '24 over deze bijna 700 pagina's gedaan. Ik ga je missen bij mijn kopje koffie in de ochtend! 🥲

[Jeff · Rating 4 out of 5]

'Paintings in the Musee D'Orsay.' Robert Rosenblum. 1989. On my first visit to Paris' Musee D'Orsay, I was stunned by Gustave Courbet's "The Origin of the World" -a nude painting of a woman, head and arms cropped, reclining in a mess of disheveled sheets, her legs gently spread a part. I was equally stunned, and also disappointed, that the painting was not included in Rosenblum's book "Paintings in the Musee d'Orsay". While many art historians hold the subjects of their work in high esteem, Rosenblum dismisses the Museum's many nudes as the 'erotic fantasy of male spectators' or simply as 'commercialized lust'. He scoffs at curators clamoring for every ' bit of scrap' from well known artists. Rosenblum is of course right to a great extent, and I applaud him for is brazen honesty, but I also cannot help but think that many art critics or historians are want- to -be artists themselves, bitter and envious of a talent they will never possess. But in all honestly, who really reads the text in a book of this kind? The real value lies in the reproduction quality of the over one thousand paintings presented, and by that measure, this book ranks first rate. The Musee D'Orsay unquestionably houses the world's greatest collection of late ninetieth century paintings, and even with out "The Origin of the World", it gives me pleasure to know that this book sits accessibly on my shelf.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the Orsay as much as the Louvre. Maybe even a little better for being less crowded and it does have that very cool clock window. This book was good to peruse after my visit because I didn't get to it before. I may have liked it better if it was a complete guide. Quite a few paintings were not included.