The celebrated Parisian Musée d'Orsay has launched a "universal reflection on climate", through an exhibition spread across France.
One hundred paintings for a universal reflection on climate. The idea comes from Paris's Musée d'Orsay, which has launched a "distributed" exhibition across the territory of France. The cultural institution has decided to loan a portion of its works and display others in the celebrated building on rue de Lille, in the French capital. The aim, precisely, is to guide visitors through a "narrative of climate", through paintings created between the mid-nineteenth century and the early twentieth century.
The exhibition "100 Œuvres qui racontent le climat" will involve, between March and July of this year, 31 museums distributed across twelve French regions. The selection features artists including Monet, Courbet, Delacroix, Caillebotte and many others, chosen in collaboration with four world-renowned scientists: Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Emma Haziza, Luc Abbadie and Jean Jouzel.
Works were thus identified that had a connection to contemporary issues. "These are works – explained Sylvain Amic, president of the Musée d'Orsay – that together will help understand the climate crisis, which will also allow local debates to emerge, since the choice of loaned paintings is tied to the territories in which they will be hosted".
For instance, the Musée Courbet located in Ornans (in the département of Doubs, which borders Switzerland) will receive "La Truite", painted by Gustave Courbet in 1873. A canvas of dramatic character showing a fish in a trap, caught but still alive, immersed in dark tones and violent contrasts. It will be displayed in a territory where the main watercourse, the Loue, is facing a period of severe trout mortality.
Similarly, the work "L'inondation à Port-Marly" by Alfred Sisley will be loaned to the Musée Girodet in Montargis, located in the département of Loiret (Centre-Val de Loire region). The cultural site suffered severe flooding in 2016, which led to the loss of a large part of the collection held there: to this day, only 40 per cent of the works have been restored. "For us the connection is more than evident – explains Sidonie Lameaux-Fraitot, director of the museum –. The advantage of a collection is that it allows you to work over the long term, unlike human memory. Works from the past can be connected to the present so that they speak to us about our country and our territories".
According to Servane Dargnies-de Vitry, senior curator at the Musée d'Orsay and curator of the project, there is indeed a close temporal link between the collections of the Parisian museum itself and climate change.
1850 marks not only the beginning of the collections but also the date from which temperatures began to be recorded regularly and reliably. Not only that: "It was precisely in the mid-nineteenth century that humanity began to burn fossil fuels and generate an unprecedented impact on the climate", noted Dargnies-de Vitry.
Among the works to be loaned are also paintings celebrated worldwide, such as "La Gare Saint-Lazare" by Claude Monet, which will be entrusted to the Musée Gassenfi in Digne-les-Bains. The list also includes masterpieces such as "Le Citron" by Édouard Manet, "Palokärki ; Grande picchio nero" by Akseli Gallen Kallela, "The Artist's Garden at Giverny", again by Monet, and "Arctic Spring" by Anna Boberg.