Arts & Entertainment

A touch of Paris at MFAH

By Uruj Perwaiz
The Daily Cougar

Houstonians got a chance to visit 19^th Century Paris and return home before the sun set Friday at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Patrons didnit use a time machine ­ they visited Paris in the Age of Impressionism: Masterworks from the Musee diOrsay.

Photo courtesy of MFAH

During an exclusive tour given by Mary Morton, the museumis curator of European art, guests of the premier ventured into the exhibit titled "The Orsay." The exhibition draws on the strengths of the Orsay collection, and Morton explained that it "presents the new 19th Century."

Most of the works were created between 1848 and World War II. They revolve around politics, finance, technology and music. Impressionism is one of the most famous styles in the history of art.

The exhibit has seven thematic groupings: "Paris, the Modern City," "High Society," "Grand Theaters," "The Dark Side of the City of Light," "The Eiffel Tower," "Art Nouveau" and "Avant-Garde at Centuryis End."

The first gallery is devoted to the Eiffel Tower, which was presented at the 1889 Worldis Fair in Paris. The exhibitionis dedication to the tower is obvious, with a large alabaster engraved structure of the tower in the center of the gallery. The Eiffel Tower represents a celebration of French engineering and technology. 

"Itis hard to underestimate the radical surgery that transformed the city with lights," Morton said.

Photos on the wall document the construction of the tower. Also displayed are perfume bottles, candlesticks and scarves that were sold as Eiffel Tower paraphernalia. 

A highlight of the exhibit is Claude Monetis "La Gare Saint-Lazare" from 1877, which Morton considers an "ode to modernity." It is a painting of a train station with a steam engine and a new apartment building in the background. Morton emphasized that it is "modernity, speed and the power of the future."

The 1860s were a time of criticism for art, and the great tradition of French painting was becoming obsolete because of the acceleration in technology. 

Edouard Manet accomplished this with his "Woman with Fans" (Nina de Callias) in 1873. Itis a painting of a woman dressed in a North African costume and wearing red lipstick. Manet used a dramatic painting method in which areas of the canvas are left bare and made to look as if it was done quickly.

"Itis very energetic," Morton said.

The same gallery has a striking model of the facade and the veranda for the Theatre de la Porte Saint-Martin. It was constructed in 1892 from brass, aluminum and glass around a wooden core. Around the model are photographs of models from which to build the new opera house.

The next gallery has an early example of Claude Monetis work. It is a painting of a woman turned away from the painter, showing off the copper fabric of her dress and her colorful shawl. This painting saved Monet. He and his girlfriend had a child and desperately needed money. He escaped disaster by creating "Madame Louis Joachim Gaudibert" in 1868.

Art-goers walk through a gallery filled with French glass art to get to the other side of the exhibit, titled "The Darker Side of the City of Light."

The "jewel and crown of this exhibition," according to Morton, is painting of a woman in a brightly lit social cafe. However, she is utterly lonely. The painting, Absinthe, is by Edgar Degas.

Also on exhibit is art that could be labeled "anti-Paris," as it shows the underbelly of rich Parisian life.

The best example of this is "The Floor Scrapers" by Gustave Caillebotte in 1875. The painting depicts three men performing backbreaking labor scraping the wooden floor of a luxury apartment in Paris.

The exhibition has 120 objects from the Musee diOrsay. The collection will be on view at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston through June 29.

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