Customer Reviews

Treasures of the Musee D'Orsay

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

This book covers the amazing collection of the Musee D'Orsay very well. This book is an absolute must for an art lover, art historian, or visitor of the museum. I did not have as much time in the museum as I would have liked. One could spend days in the Musee D'Orsay, and this book brings me right back and allows me to reexamine the works I missed, forgotten, or wanted to spend more time with.

I'm not an art critic, but I am an expert at the obvious. So here goes. This book is not as spectacular as the Musee d'Orsay. The museum is a cathedral to fine art. It's refreshing. It's engaging. You can see masterpieces up close and personal, but with room to breathe. The book reflects just enough of the museum's grandeur to tempt me into going again, to Paris, the City of Lights.

For 25 bucks the book gives you what you deserve, a sampling of the museum's art work. It's not comprehensive. It includes some marginal works. But it serves its purpose. If you have been to the museum, some paintings will be noticeably absent from the book. For example, Cain by Fernand Cormonis is not included. This massive painting measures approximately 12 by 23 feet and occupies an entire wall of one room. However, such treasures as Madame Barbe de Rinsky-Korsakov by Winterhalter are in the book, on one whole page, in excellent color and sharp detail. The book also includes a wide selection of impressionist works for which the museum is known. Many of these painting are just not my cup of tea... Woman with a Black Feather Boa... whatever. I do, however, like one or two paintings by Pissarro, Caillebotte, Monet, and Sisley which are reproduced in the book. These impressionists hit the mark for me. I can do without the post impressionists (dot paintings, van Gogh, almost cubism, etc).

Other stunning paintings are included in the book such as The Tepidarium by Chasseriau, Ploughing in the Nivernais Region by Bonheur, The Gleaners by Millet, The Birth of Venus by Bouguereau, Count Robert de Montesquiou by Boldini, and The Floor Scrapers by Caillebotte. Thank God all of these masterpieces survived WWII. The book also includes sections on sculpture, the decorative arts such as glass, metal, and wood work, early photographic prints, and architectural drawings (some of which are quite spectacular in detail and coloration).

I recommend reading the Overview or Features section for this book on Barnes and Noble dot com which runs for over 20 paragraphs and is very informative (since it's actually the book's introduction as written by Francoise Cachin). An interior view of the Musee d'Orsay, formerly a train station, is on the cover of this book: Musee D'Orsay

A family member and I recently traveled to Paris. Unfortunately, we were unable to visit the D'Orsay Museum so I purchased this as a gift. She was thrilled with it!

We just returned from Musee D'Orsay. The book was very expensive at the museum and would have cost more to ship. The price was great. The book is new, large colorful pictures highlighting the best of one of my favorite museums in Paris!

This book is ok if you want a collection of prints of about 240 art objects. It is useless otherwise, specially if you are a beginner, because there is no commentary with any of the prints.

Each section begins with a short commentary - and that's all. For example, one section for Manet, Degas, Whistler, Latour, Monet, Morisot, Pissaro, Renoir, Sisley, Cezanne, etc has just a single page of commentary for 43 paintings!!