Out and about, Musee D'orsay again

They had this really nice John Currin!

 sike :-/

IN WHICH I go to museums, part 1

Now that I’m not spending every moment scrambling for paperwork, I’ve had the opportunity to visit some of Paris’ famed museums. The best part is that I go for free.

I went first to the Musée d’Orsay, which was just heart-stopping. The museum itself is gorgeous. It’s in an old train station with a ceiling is high and arched, and full of light. (It’s also really well organized and easy to navigate <3 ) To see so many paintings that I’ve seen reproductions of for years…  It feels so good, so rich.

My favorite to see was Courbet’s Un Enterrement à Ornans (1850), a somber picture of a burial in his home town:

It is so good. Looking, I wanted to cry a little. The experience of scale doesn't come across in images. Each figure is about life size, the picture, enormous. (How did he even paint that? On a ladder?) It's pretty famous for political/social commentary, but what attracts me is the quality of the paint, the colors, and especially the composition.