Awash in Art

I think I have just gone to my favorite museum in France today, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. The space is beautiful, and was originally a working train station. So walking around felt like being inside one huge art piece even without perusing the paintings and sculptures.

Unfortunately pictures were not really allowed in this museum, so I am sorely lacking in visuals for this post. But I did snap a shot of the museum space. It's huge, with translucent ceilings that let in soft filtered light and a feeling of openness that actually helped highlight the art.

The art pieces were predominately from the mid-late 1800s, and covered everything from paintings to sculptures to furniture. Many of the artists are among the best known in the world, so it was really a lot of fun to be able to compare and contrast their work (Van Goh and Monet probably being the most recognized).

I ended up grinning like a loon through some of the exhibits, and I have to blame a book I recently read. Christopher Moore's Sacre Bleu featured many of these artists as characters in a fictional plotline, and I almost felt like I was visiting some old friends (Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec! That short bawdy fellow; he CAN paint after all!). I also found a new appreciation for George Seurat's pointillism work, which is composed of thousands of tiny precise dots of color.

My favorite piece of the day ended up being a new discovery for me though. François Garas was technically an architect; little is known about him except that he sketched some pretty fanciful works. Although I believe this piece dates to about 1900, it looks so much like science fiction cover art from the 1980s, no?

Title: Temple of Thought

Eventually, I made my way up to the tower level, where the giant clock allows you to peek out at the city below. This was a fantastic museum to visit; one that I will actually look forward to returning to next time I'm in Paris!