Impressionist Decorations

“It has been my lifelong dream to paint walls,” Degas confided. The artist was not alone in his desire to participate in the many decorative works of the late 19^th century. Although Monet and the Impressionists did not receive official commissions for them, they produced paintings and decorative objects throughout their careers. They experimented with many techniques while redefining in their own way the very idea of “decorative,” a paradoxical notion, both positive and depreciative, and one at the heart of the artistic practice and aesthetic and social thinking of the late 19^th century.

This aspect of Impressionism is little known today. Yet the Water Lilies cycle at the Orangerie, which Monet called his “great decorations,” crowns more than sixty years of forays into this field. And if the paintings exhibited by the Impressionists shocked, it was also because they were seen as simple decorations, devoid of meaning and dedicated to the sole pleasure of the senses. Didn't a critic write in 1874 that what Monet was painting was akin to “wallpaper”?

Thus, for the first time, this exhibition invites visitors to explore another history of Impressionism with works by Cassatt, Cézanne, Degas, Manet, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, and Renoir from around the world, some of which are rarely or never shown in France. It shows how, through some eighty paintings, fans, ceramics, or drawings, the Impressionists blazed a new trail, with the conviction that, to quote Renoir, art is made above all to “brighten the walls.”

Hold onto your ticket...

... and continue your discovery of Impressionist masterpieces: throughout the exhibition “Impressionist Decorations. Tracing the Roots of Monet’s Water Lilies” (from March 2 to July 11, 2022), you will receive reduced admission to the Musée d'Orsay within fifteen days of your visit, upon presentation of your admission ticket.