Exhibition: ‘Birth of Impressionism’ in Nashville

Have paintings will travel. The Birth of Impressionism exhibition, currently on show at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, is headed next for the Frist Center for the Visual Arts in Nashville, Tennessee. The exhibition, part of the Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay collection on the road while renovations in Paris are under way for the 25 anniversary in 2011, will open in Nashville 15 October 2010.

There will be about 100 mid to late 19th-century French paintings from the permanent collection of the Musée d’Orsay, Paris. The exhibition tells the story of the birth of Impressionism in France in the mid 19th century, and its developemnt through to the last 19th century, through a selection of important works by artists such as Courbet, Manet, Cézanne, Monet, and Renoir.

Although this is the same exhibition that was on show previously in Madrid and then San Francisco, the Nashville exhibition will have seventeen paintings not seen in the two previous shows. These include:
The Dance Foyer at the Opera on Rue Le Peletier by Edgar Degas (1872)
Ballet Rehearsal on the Set by Edgar Degas (1874)
Argenteuil by Claude Monet (1875)
Church at Vetheuil by Claude Monet (1879)
Emile Zola by Edouard Manet (1868)
The Woman with a White Jabot by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1880)
William Sisley by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1864)

“The Musee d’Orsay has the finest collection of French mid-to-late 19th-century art in the world,” said Frist Center Executive Director Susan H. Edwards. “In sharing these masterworks with the cities of Madrid, San Francisco and Nashville, the Musee d’Orsay offers an unparalleled cultural experience to people who might not have the opportunity to travel to Paris.”

Birth of Impressionism: Masterpieces from the Musée d’Orsay at the First runs from 15 October 2010 through to 23 January 2011. Click here, to read more information about the exhibition. If you go and see the exhibition, please return and leave a comment below.

Edouard Manet, The Fife Player, 1866. Oil on canvas. 160 cm x 97 cm. © Musée d’Orsay.

Be prepared, get the exhibition catalogue from Amazon:

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