Musee d'Orsay displays collections of art from the period 1848 to 1914. The museum was installed in the former Orsay railway station, built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900.
In Berthe Morisot With a Bouquet of Violets, Manet chose to light his model vividly from the side so that Berthe Morisot's face seems to be all light and shadow.
When Degas died in 1917, 150 wax or clay sculptures were found in his studio. These statues had remained unknown to the public while the artist was alive, except for Dancer Aged 14 which Degas had shown in the Impressionist exhibition in 1881.
The painting, bought by the French state in 1891, is now one of the most famous works by an American artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler outside the United States.
"Nymphaea" is the botanical name for a water lily. Monet grew white water lilies in the water garden he had installed in his property at Giverny in 1893
Like Rembrandt and Goya, Vincent van Gogh often used himself as a model; he produced over forty-three self-portraits, paintings or drawings in ten years.