Monet’s “Nympheas”
Paris is often known as La Ville-Lumière, “The City of Lights.” But it may just as aptly be called the “City of Arts.” Last week, I just spent five days in Paris, although I’ve been there something like a dozen times before. However, having done all the typical tourist attractions (Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur & Montmartre, Arc de Triomphe & Champs-Élysées, Versailles), I decided to do many of the things I’ve never done before, especially the museums.
Yes, I have been to the Louvre and the Musee d’Orsay during past visits, but there are 60+ museums in Paris and I wanted to get a taste for some more of them. Of special interest to me is Impressionism, one of my favorite genres of art. On the first Sunday of every month, all museums in Paris are free, and I took full advantage of that fact! Plus I got myself a two-day museum pass which cost only 32 euros, so really I got three days’ worth of museums for the price of two.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the best museums that Paris has to offer, starting with the “Big Two.”
Louvre: One of the largest museums in the world (in fact, it might be the largest single museum structure, even though the Smithsonian in Washington D.C. is cumulatively larger), this could take you a week to do just by itself. You enter via the massive courtyard crowned with a glass pyramid courtesy of Chinese architect I.M. Pei who also designed some of the MIT campus. If you can’t spend a week here, then at least hit the five highlights: the Mona Lisa; the Winged Victory of Samothrace; the Virgin of the Rocks; the Code of Hammurabi; and the Venus de Milo.
Musee d’Orsay: Built in an old train station, it has been transformed into a museum with perhaps the greatest collection of Impressionist paintings in the world, with works by Manet, Monet, Van Gogh, Delacroix, Gauguin, Pissaro, Cezanne, Degas, Renoir, Fantin-Latour, Millet, and others. The top floor is dedicated solely to Impressionism. This is time well spent, and if you are a fan of Impressionism like me, this collection will make you drool (but stand far back from the paintings if you do)!
Rodin: Although I think of him somewhat as a one-trick pony (because many of his creations look alike, and he just cranked out multiple copies from his molds), Rodin is an admittedly wonderful sculptor. This museum really does his works justice, displaying many of them outdoors amidst gardens and ponds. There are multiple copies of “The Thinker” in the world, but this museum has the original one! Also, even more exciting to me, was to finally see Rodin’s “Gates of Hell” which is his magnum opus. Almost all his sculptures are based off of the “Gates.” The museum is located next to the Hotel des Invalides, the golden-domed building which is now Napoleon’s tomb.
Delacroix: Eugene Delacroix is considered by many to be the Father of Impressionism. I really like his bold and swirled style of painting which inspired so many other artists. This museum is housed in his old apartment, and you can even see the bedroom in which he died. It is a small collection, but satisfying nonetheless.
Orangerie: There is one main reason to come to this museum (located in the Tuileries garden next to the Place de la Concorde): Monet’s eight “Nympheas” paintings. Like Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Last Supper” which was painted on the walls of a church in Milan (thus it can never be moved), Monet’s “Nympheas” cycle is also painted on the walls of this museum. This museum was under renovation for some seven years before it recently reopened. The “Nympheas” are essentially large curved panoramic paintings of waterlilies—absolutely gorgeous. And once you’ve soaked in these eight paintings housed in two sunlit rooms, head downstairs and see the rest of the fairly-good Impressionist collection, which has works by Cezanne, Modigliani, Picasso, Matisse, Renoir, Utrillo, Sisley, and others.
Marmottan: This hard-to-find museum is located on the western end of Paris in a beautiful house with an ornate interior. Go downstairs, however, and you will find the real treasure of the place: the world’s largest collection of Monet paintings! There are over 100 of them, and you can also see works by other artists like Manet, Renoir, Degas, and Morisot. Worth the trip if you can find it!
Picasso: I like Picasso, and I admire his talent (his paintings are so varied! And he was the master of Cubism), but I think his downfall is that he was way too prolific, due to the fact that he became famous in his lifetime (most other artists became famous posthumously). Picasso cranked out so much stuff that it is hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. It seems like every single European city has a Picasso museum, and much of it is—pardon my French—crappy stuff mixed in with the good stuff. I feel like I’ve been to a dozen Picasso museums throughout Europe, and this one in Paris didn’t impress me that much. The building is nice, but the collection (as far as Picasso goes) is unspectacular. I thought the MOMA in NYC, the Tate Modern in London, and the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, all had better Picasso selections. Hey, anyway Picasso was Spanish not French!
Pompidou Center: I have to admit I’m not a fan of contemporary art. Anything past Picasso is beyond me. However, this museum is architecturally interesting (it was built with its insides out) and worth seeing at least for that. When I went, the collection was focused on female artists. Well and fine, it’s about time women get their time in the artistic spotlight, but most of the collection seemed to have a “chip on its shoulder,” being more a defiance of male artists rather than coming into its own. And much of it was grossly explicitly sexual. I think anything that relies on shock to derive its value does not have the timelessness to last the ages.
Giverny: I was really disappointed I did not have time to go to this museum. But several friends recommended it to me. It’s actually not in Paris, it’s located about 45 minutes away (by train) in Monet’s former residence. It has not only an extensive collection of Impressionist works, but also has the Japanese bridge, lily ponds, and grounds that inspired Monet in his paintings. Oh how I wish I had the time to see this! Next time, perhaps.
Hey, all this is barely scratching the surface! There are tons of other museums in Paris, but hopefully these highlights will get you interested in visiting more museums, in Paris—La Ville-Artes!
