With a title that should attract crowds without much trouble, the Manet / Degas exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay, not far from the hotels in our collection, offers a comparison of two essential artists of the 1860s-80s, showing their similarities as well as their many differences.

Sure to be one of the biggest cultural events of the Paris spring calendar, the exhibition is co-organised with New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art and will be inaugurated by the French president’s wife Brigitte Macron and the queen consort Camilla Parker Bowles! 🤗

Manet was born in 1832 and Degas twelve years later. Manet died at 51 (Degas lived thirty years longer) and the aim of the exhibition is partly to contrast their paintings and show how Manet’s work gained importance after his death.

You’ll learn that certain themes enthused both painters (prostitutes taking a bath, café scenes, horse races…) and that they both had a sense of realism that reinvented the genre, much to the delight of art collectors.

However, much of the exhibitions is dedicated to showing how different the two painters were.

Their training and characters were very different, and they did not share the same tastes in music and literature. Manet wanted recognition at whatever cost, while Degas refused the standard channels for gaining success. Manet was very sociable, Degas had an almost secret existence.

The exhibition thus explores what united and differentiated the two artists, showing that they were more rivals than friends.

Numerous events are being organised around the exhibition:

— several concerts, including a lunchtime one by Théotime Langlois de Swarte (violin) and Tanguy de Williencourt (piano) on 4th April at 12.30pm (18€, book here)

— and three evening concerts by Albin de la Simone (whose new album Les cent prochaines années has just been released) on the 5th, 6th and 7th April à 8pm (26€ 😳, book here)

— contemporary dance for kids – called Victorine! – on 13th May at 3pm, with two dancers, one of whom plays the lady seen in the painting Déjeuner sur l’herbe! (18€, book here)

— une lecture théâtralisée of the play Manet, Degas – Une femme peut en cacher une autre on 11th June at 4pm (18€, book here)

— a special evening event (what they call a Curieuse Nocturne) entitled Albin & friends, with three concerts by Albin de la Simone in the main nave of the museum, talks, workshops, special guests…

The full programme can be consulted here.

A catalogue of the exhibition is also available – 272 pages, 45€ here at your local amazon.

---

The exhibition Manet / Degas is at the Musée d’Orsay (here) from 28th March – 23rd July 2023

Open every day except Mondays from 9.30am-6pm (9.45pm Thursdays)

Admission: 16€ / 13€

Website / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / #ManetDegas

What3Words ///oddly.across.speaker

#CeJourLa : il y a 190 ans, le 23 janvier 1832, naissait Edouard #Manet à Paris.

Ce portrait est l’œuvre d’Edgar Degas et le musée d’Orsay présente à partir du 28 mars une grande exposition réunissant ces deux géants.
👉 https://t.co/1IXBiWRQHw#ManetDegas pic.twitter.com/orSL6XLURP

— Musée d’Orsay (@MuseeOrsay) January 23, 2023

Voir cette publication sur Instagram

Une publication partagée par Musée d’Orsay (@museeorsay)