“These two exhibitions present a rare and unique opportunity for Americans to see the evolution and incubation of the Impressionist style from the collection of the most important repository of French 19th and early 20th century art — the Musée d’Orsay,” says John E. Buchanan, director of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. “These exhibitions give us the opportunity to share with visitors some of the most seminal works of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art that they would only be able to see in Paris or in an art history book as the likelihood of them traveling en masse again is slim.”

The first exhibition, Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay opens in the Herbst special exhibition galleries at the de Young on May 22, 2010 and runs through September 6, 2010. This exhibition puts forth nearly 100 works by the famous masters who called France their home during the mid-19th century and from whose midst arose one of the most original and recognizable of all artistic styles, Impressionism. This exhibition begins with paintings by naturalist artists such as Bougereau and Courbet and presents American expatriate James McNeil Whistler’s Arrangement in Gray and Black, known to many as “Whistler’s Mother.” Early work by Manet, Monet, Renoir and Sisley are on view as well as a selection of Degas’ paintings that depict images of the ballet, the racetrack and life in “la Belle Époque.” Notable works in this exhibition include:

• The Fife Player by Edouard Manet (1866)
• Family Reunion by Frédéric Bazille (1867)
• Arrangement in Gray and Black No. 1 or Portrait of the Artist’s Mother by James McNeil Whistler (1871)
• The Birth of Venus by William Adolphe Bouguereau (1879)
• The Cradle by Berthe Morisot (1872)
• Saint-Lazare Station by Claude Monet (1877)
• The Swing by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1876)
• Rue Montorgueil, Paris. Festival of June 30, 1878 by Claude Monet
• Racehorses Before the Stands by Edgar Degas (1866-1868)
• The Dancing Lesson by Edgar Degas (1873-1876)
• Portraits at the Stock Exchange by Edgar Degas (1878-1879)

The second exhibition, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne and Beyond: Post- Impressionist Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay opens on September 25, 2010 and runs through January 18, 2011. This exhibition presents 120 of the Musée d’Orsay’s most famous late Impressionist paintings including those by Monet and Renoir, followed by the more individualistic styles of the early modern masters including Cézanne, Gauguin, Lautrec and van Gogh, and the Nabis painters, Bonnard and Vuillard. The exhibition will also provide a unique look at the Orsay’s spectacular collection of Pointillist painters including work by Seurat and Signac.

Notable works in this exhibition include:
• A Dance in the Country by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1883)
• The Circus by George Seurat (1891)
• Self Portrait by Vincent van Gogh (1887)
• Starry Night over the Rhone by Vincent van Gogh (1888)
• The Artist’s Bedroom at Arles by Vincent van Gogh (1889)
• Portrait of the Artist with the Yellow Christ by Paul Gauguin (1889)
• Tahitian Women, On the Beach by Paul Gauguin (1891)
• Still Life with Onions by Paul Cézanne (1895)
• The Snake Charmer by Henri Rousseau (1907)

About the Musée d’Orsay
The Musée d’Orsay, a train station created for the Paris International Exposition of 1900 and transformed into a museum by renowned architect Gae Aulenti, opened to the public on December 9, 1986 with its goal to highlight the art of the western world from the period 1848 through 1914. Its collection, one of the world’s finest, is comprised of paintings, sculpture, drawings, decorative arts, furniture, photography, and architectural work from this period consolidated from collections of the Louvre, Jeu de Paume and Modern Art Museum in Paris as well as major gifts from private collectors, artists and their heirs. The Musée d’Orsay’s collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings represent the finest survey of its kind in the world.

About the de Young
The de Young, designed by Herzog & de Meuron and located in Golden Gate Park, showcases American art from the 17th through the 21st centuries, international textile arts and costumes, and art from the Americas, the Pacific, and Africa.

De Young Museum
Golden Gate Park
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive
San Francisco, CA 94118
www.deyoungmuseum.org
415.750.3600

PRESS CONTACTS:

Jill Lynch
415.750.3553
jlynch@famsf.org

Amelie Hardivillier
amelie.hardivillier@musee-orsay.fr

Musée d’Orsay exhibitions head west in 2010 from: Tourism in France