Sea of Tranquility

Dear artsy ones,

Ah yes, the famous Musée d‘Orsay. I had the pleasure to visit it several times last month, due to alo-hot of people who came to visit me in the best city in the world!

So - Musée d‘Orsay. It is the place, that harbours most of my favorite art. It is huge and always attracts alot of people. Everytime I went, there was a line of at least 30 minutes. Which doesn‘t really matter, because it IS that good. Not like the stupid Louvre. 

The current exhibition in addition to the amazing permanent collection was about „Degas et le nu“ which wasn‘t as good as I had hoped. There were way too much sketches and very little large scale works displayed in a too little space with horrible lighting. A little disappointing. 

But after the, let‘s say average, exhibition you have the entire rest of the wonderful Musée D‘Orsay at your feet. Because you could never look at everything at once, I chose the orientalist section on the ground floor. Breathtaking! Orientalism was triggered by the discovery and access to a new world through Napoleons egyptian campaign. It was also in that time, where the painters removed themselves from unrealistic visions of the orient and began to discover a new palette of colors, landscapes and people that resulted in a very romantic portrayal of the land where the sun rises. 

The Museé d‘Orsay mostly shows paintings of landscapes and animals in the orientalistic manor, like those of Guillaumet and de Tournemine. 

Charles Emile de Tournemine Painting - Cafe in Adalia

Sadly, one of my favorite romantic orientalist pieces isn‘t displayed at Orsay. It is Delacroix‘ masterpiece "Women of Algiers". A lucious display of the inside of a Harem. Beautiful women dressed and drapped in even more beautiful textiles, smoking the waterpipes. It‘s a painting that oozes calm and tranquility without forgetting the hot and eroticly charged surroundings. Amazing!

And then there is the beautiful building that is the Musée d‘Orsay. The old railwaystation that grew out of need is a perfect place to house one of the greatest collections of modern and impressionist art. The clocks and fassades are masterpieces of their own and are almost as iconic as the works inside.