Art, drama and composition, this is how cinema (re)shaped our understanding of art
When rhythm was linked to
perspective and movement
When you enter the hall of the old train station (nowadays the Musée d'Orsay), you will encounter two important things : the architecture and the movement. Therefore, the first room of the show, curated by Dominique Païni, Paul Perrin and Marie Robert tries to create a link between the use of movement and architecture in different mediums, such as paintings, photographs, sculptures and films.
Thus, the first section showcase a significant holding of photographs and paintings focusing on the subject of Paris. On the first wall, you have an influential holding of photographs from the early and mid 19th century.
In this photograph by the French artist Constant Puyo, the viewer and the women are emerged in the city of light, the city redesigned by Georges Eugène Haussmann. While the photo showcase a woman, overlooking the street from her balcony, the background is more or less a homage to the modernity and the landmark of Paris (with Montmartre). Therefore, the artist are playing with two different subjects : everyday scene and evolution.
Caillebotte, the "Haussmann painter"
Opposite to this wall of photographs, one of the masterpiece of the French artist Gustave Caillebotte (mostly known for Les Raboteurs de parquet ). This work was made after the Pont de l'Europe and the Place de l'Europe, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.
In 1832, the Compagnie du chemin de fer of Paris will dig a tunnel due to their new line from Paris to Saint-Germain and the Gare Saint-Lazare. 30 Years later, the impressionist depicted this place, first Claude Monet with his views of the inside of the Gare Saint-Lazare. And later, Gustave Caillebotte when the widening of the rail track give the opportunity to Haussmann and the engineer Adolphe Jullien to create a steel viaduct in 1863.
Nonetheless, the geometric forms of this new viaduct inspired the geometric composition of this masterpiece. Therefore, Le pont de l'Europe will take his roots in Monet oeuvre, due to the incredible collection of impressionist picture Caillebotte had.
For this "new interpretation", Caillebotte will absorb the bridge structure while dividing the picture into two different oeuvres. At the left, three Parisians overlooking the Gare Saint-Lazare and at the right a picture full of "renouveau", technology and overlooked by this new mode of transport : train.
But, what about the group of three Parisians ? Are they shocked by the train ? Or by the impressive feet or engineering ? From the Pont de l'Europe to the new Architecture ?
2 - Time
Thus, we will turn ourselves to the time and how it helped depict a new kind of paintings and scenery's , in a variety of mediums.
The serial approach and his continually gave the work of art a kind of "time-lapse" of a view, the same as a sensor of a camera. Therefore, Claude Monet will start during 1892 and 1893 to look up at a new subject, his choice feel on the cathedral of Rouen. He first started from the view of Fernand Lévy's house, located opposite to the cathedral. But, when he left Rouen, he didn't felt happy about his first attempt. He will then go back to Rouen on February 16, 1893 after a year at Giverny. It's, at that time, that he will develop the world-famous cathedral we knew and love. Even thought he painted it from five different point of view in less than a year, the complete series of 28 canvases will be timeless.
After this successful creative spirit and oeuvre, Monet brings into competition Paul Durand-Ruel and Georges Petit, to receive a part of those canvases, and to sell them. Paul Durand-Ruel will exhibit them at a price of 12,000 francs for each of the paintings.
All of this to say that this view, this multiplication and this vibrancy is in dialogue of revolution and modernization. In 1888, the Municipal Council of Paris decides to create an electricity distribution network. In particular, in view of the Universal Exhibition of 1889 where the silhouette of the Eiffel Tower appears in the capital.
3 - Body
The third section of the exhibition is devoted to the body, and his relation to his environment. When the Lumière Brothers, were working for their parent from their 1870s to 1882, they helped him out to study the process of making a photographic plate. Therefore, both of them had an important and rigorous understanding of physics and light.
Thus, they helped their father to develop their first machine necessary to automate their father's plate production and devised a very successful new photo plate: "etiquettes bleue" (1884). It is followed by several significant processes leading up to their film camera, patented on 13 February 1895
Since then, many scenes of movies and documentaries are filmed inside or out, with one or multiple camera. Nonetheless, the photographic medium will still be significant in the research of "realness" of decors. This will lead to the avant-garde of the 20th century and the combination of motifs and abstract shapes.
4 - History
Informations about the exhibition
Place: Musée d'Orsay
Date: 28.9.2021 – 16.1.2022
Curators: Dominique Païni, Paul Perrin and Marie Robert
Ticket: Available on the website of the Musée d'Orsay OR at the front desk of the museum
Informations about the Musée d'Orsay
Musée d'Orsay
Esplanade Valéry Giscard d'Estaing
75007 Paris
Phone: +33 (0)1 40 49 48 14