Opening on June 19, 2025, the Museum of Art Pudong (MAP) unveils its annual flagship international exhibition, "Paths to Modernity: Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay, Paris." As the largest exhibition ever mounted by the Musée d'Orsay in China, "Paths to Modernity" gathers the museum's core collection for a one-stop-only global showcase, making it a once-in-a-generation event. The exhibition assembles over 100 masterpieces of French art from the 1840s to the early 20th century, encompassing nearly all major artistic movements represented in the Musée d'Orsay's collections—from Academicism to Realism and Naturalism, through Impressionism and Neo-Impressionism, to Post-Impressionism and the Nabis. Together, these works compose a grand artistic panorama transcending time and space. Masters including Vincent van Gogh, Claude Monet, Jean-François Millet, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Gustave Courbet and Georges Seurat converge with ground-breaking, authentic works that pioneered modern artistic language, collectively embodying the avant-garde spirit and artistic revolution that led from Classicism to Modernity.

As an iconic global destination for art lovers, the Musée d'Orsay represents a supreme aspiration for everyone—from European locals to international visitors, and from art novices to seasoned collectors. This exhibition, the culmination of years of exemplary collaboration between the Musée d'Orsay, Paris and Museum of Art Pudong, adopts a unique narrative that traces the dynamic interplay between artistic innovation and social transformation in France from 1848 to 1914. Structured into five thematic sections, it constructs a visual epic about "The Birth of Modernity" for visitors, encouraging them to reconsider the trajectory of artistic development through both historical and socio-cultural perspectives. Through a focus on painting, while incorporating sculpture, the exhibition comprehensively showcases the parallel development and intertwined evolution of diverse artistic ideas and creative methods during this period. Audiences can fulfill their dream of "stepping into the Musée d'Orsay" without leaving China.

"Paths to Modernity" brings together the most representative masters of the Musée d'Orsay and their seminal works. Key highlights from the collection include Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles and Self-Portrait by Vincent van Gogh; The Gleaners by Jean-François Millet; Tahitian Women (also known as On the Beach) by Paul Gauguin; Stacks of Wheat, End of Summer by Claude Monet; Émile Zola by Édouard Manet; The Dance Foyer at the Opera on the rue Le Peletier by Edgar Degas; Young Girls at the Piano by Pierre-Auguste Renoir; Portrait of Madame Cézanne by Paul Cézanne; The White Cat by Pierre Bonnard; Women at the Well. Opus 238 by Paul Signac; and The Birth of Venus by Alexandre Cabanel. The exhibition also features over twenty significant sculptures, including Victor Hugo by Auguste Rodin, the founder of modern sculpture, Degas's bronze sculptures from his "Dancer" series, and wood carvings from Gauguin's Tahitian period.

The exhibition is curated by renowned art historian and Scientific Advisor to the President of Musée d'Orsay, Stéphane Guégan. A key curatorial highlight is its move beyond the traditional isolation of masterpieces, instead juxtaposing them with works that share formal specifics or subject matters. The exhibition design, meticulously crafted by acclaimed French scenographer Cécile Degos, draws inspiration from the iconic interior architecture of the Musée d'Orsay. Combined with the spatial structure of Museum of Art Pudong, it creates an immersive viewing experience that evokes the sensation of being inside the museum in Paris itself, where familiar light, shadow, and curves reappear on the banks of the Huangpu River. To further recreate the Musée d'Orsay's unique atmosphere, the concourse is adorned with an image of its emblematic giant clock, providing a popular photo spot and extending the immersive feeling beyond the galleries.

"Paths to Modernity: Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay" is organised by Musée d'Orsay, Paris and Museum of Art Pudong, and produced by Shanghai Lujiazui Development (Group) Company Limited. This exhibition is exclusively sponsored by Lancôme and supported by the Consulate General of France in Shanghai. It has been included in the 2025 Croisements Festival. 

Paths to Modernity: A Cross-Century Journey of Artistic Revolution

The exhibition "Paths to Modernity: Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay" unfolds across five thematic sections. Beginning with Academicism, it progresses to showcase Realism and Naturalism's profound engagement with social reality and daily life. It then explores Impressionism's experiments with visual perception, Neo-Impressionism's colour order, Post-Impressionism's exploration of form and subjectivity, and finally the Nabis, who navigated between intimism and decoration. The exhibition encompasses virtually all significant artistic movements within the Musée d'Orsay's collection, offering a breadth in chronological scope and artistic representation rarely equalled by comparable exhibitions worldwide.

Centred on painting and complemented by concurrent presentations of sculpture, the exhibition guides the audience through a historical perspective on the parallel evolution and dynamic interaction of multiple artistic ideas and an evolutive context between 1848 and 1914. Diverse styles and ideas converged and clashed during this era, with movements borrowing from and enriching one another, collectively driving the continuous renewal of artistic language and visual concepts. This fostered a pluralistic and interwoven creative landscape. It was within this historical context that epoch-defining masters such as Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, and Vincent van Gogh constantly reshaped pictorial language, expanding art's intellectual tension and perceptual dimensions. Their work fully embodies the fresh dynamism of French art at the turn of the century as it moved toward a globally significant expression of modernity.

Over 100 Representative Masterpieces: An Exclusive Global Stop

"Paths to Modernity" assembles over 100 iconic original works from the Musée d'Orsay's collection, encompassing the most representative masterpieces from the 1840s to the early 20th century. This unprecedented assembly marks the first large-scale presentation of the Musée d'Orsay's core collections in China. The exhibits include iconic masterpieces from the canon, classic paintings making their debut in China and other treasured works from the Orsay collection. Audiences at Museum of Art Pudong will have the rare opportunity to engage closely with these unmissable artistic milestones, experiencing a visual feast and aesthetic encounter unique to this exclusive stop of the exhibition worldwide.

Among the exhibition's core highlights, Post-Impressionist master Vincent van Gogh's Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles and Self-Portrait powerfully demonstrate his intense emotional expression, bold colour application, and vigorous brushwork. Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles depicts his intimate space during his time in southern France, conveying a longing for "absolute repose" through its tense composition and restrained palette. His Self-Portrait reveals the artist's inner emotional state with its fiercely expressive texture and sculptural materiality.

The work of Realist master Jean-François Millet's The Gleaners is widely reproduced in art publications and holds an extraordinary place in art history. Millet brought ordinary figures and everyday scenes into the highest artistic realm, gazing unflinchingly at the real conditions of society's underclass labourers. Behind the image of three peasant women bending to ears of glean in a wheat field lies the hidden tension of the era's urban-rural structures and class relations.

One of the most radical and adventurous artists of Post-Impressionism, Paul Gauguin created Tahitian Women (also known as On the Beach) during his early years in Tahiti. The work embodies his decisive break from modern industrial society and his quest for non-Western artistic inspiration, establishing a visual language deliberately distanced from Naturalism.

Claude Monet, widely regarded as a founder of Impressionism, revolutionized art by transforming natural landscapes into records of subjective perception and transient experience. Stacks of Wheat, End of Summer not only symbolizes the French rural landscape but also, through layered tones and shifting light, reveals how time and season continuously shape visual and sound experiences. The Rocks of Belle-Île, the Wild Coast demonstrates a shift in Monet's style toward more condensed forms and dynamic compositions, while subtly revealing traces of influence from Japanese print masters Suzuki Harunobu and Katsushika Hokusai.

Édouard Manet, whose innovations paved the way for Impressionism without being reduced to it, acutely captured the identity and psychological state of modern urbanites in his works. From Émile Zola to The Lady with Fans, he depicted the faces of his time while integrating elements inspired by Japanese prints and images of liberated women, infusing new visual meaning into "modern life." Meanwhile, Edgar Degas, a pivotal figure in the emergence of New Painting, is represented by works like The Dance Foyer at the Opera on the rue Le Peletier and In a Café. He employed meticulous dynamic compositions and structured perspectives to explore gesture and psychological space within the flux of the city.

The exhibition juxtaposes representative works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Cézanne, two pivotal figures in the transition of Impressionism, despite their divergent styles. Renoir's Young Girls at the Piano was his first painting acquired by the French state, depicting two young women immersed in music. The work not only captures a moment of performance but also seems to convey the rhythm of the music, evoking a synesthetic interplay of sound and image. Paul Cézanne, hailed as the "father of modernism," reveals the core characteristics of his late style in Portrait of Madame Cézanne—building tonal variations through dense brushwork and guiding the viewer into a pure, tranquil, and profound viewing experience through simplified forms and constantly adjusted perspectives.

Georges Seurat, the leader of Pointillism, continued his response to Ingres's classical ideals in Model, Back View, while also embodying his dual pursuit of pictorial form and thematic modernity. After Seurat's untimely death, Paul Signac became a key disseminator and theoretical founder of Neo-Impressionism. His work Women at the Well. Opus 238 depicts the radiant landscape of Saint-Tropez, imbuing it with utopian and Provençal aspirations. Pierre Bonnard, one of the most representative artists of the Nabis, demonstrates his acute sensitivity to life's details and sense of reverie in works like The White Cat and The Pleasure—the dynamic lines of the cat and childhood play in the swimming pool—joyfully responding to his creative manifesto of "hovering between intimism and the decoration."

Also noteworthy in the exhibition are several masterpieces from the Academic tradition, including Alexandre Cabanel's The Birth of Venus, Ernest Meissonier's 1814, The French Campaign, alongside key works by Realist giant Gustave Courbet's The Wounded Man (Self-Portrait), Jules Bastien-Lepage's Haymaking, Charles-François Daubigny's Spring, and Auguste Rodin's sculpture Victor Hugo. Furthermore, notable works by Impressionist contemporaries are featured, such as Alfred Sisley's The Barge during Flood, Port-Marly, Camille Pissarro's Red Roofs, Corner of a Village, Winter, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec's Portrait of Mademoiselle Justine Dieuhl (also known as Woman in the Garden).

A Dialogue Across Centuries: The Birth of Modernity

The exhibition "Paths to Modernity: Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay" not only brings together Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces familiar to Chinese audiences, but also, through its systematic and comprehensive narrative structure, situates various artistic movements within a cohesive artistic panorama. It traces the evolutionary paths of French art as they steadily advance toward modernity amid dramatic transformation, enabling viewers to grasp both continuity and rupture across diverse artistic explorations. This exhibition also aligns perfectly with the mission of Museum of Art Pudong—to introduce world-class artistic treasures while presenting the deep currents of art history in a rigorous yet accessible manner. It aims to expand public understanding of art history, promote aesthetic education with greater depth and breadth, and ensure that significant cultural resources genuinely benefit a broader segment of society. This process not only responds to adults' desire for deeper art comprehension but also plants the seeds of beauty for younger generations. The over one hundred masterpieces on view serve as a visual "art book." In experiencing the original works up close, children can perceive the expressive power of art through real brushstrokes, colours, and compositions. By appreciating and reflecting on these works, they begin to cultivate aesthetic sensibility, humanistic vision, and creative thinking—laying a solid foundation for their future artistic understanding and aesthetic growth.

As Sylvain Amic, President of the Public Establishment of the Musées d'Orsay and the Musée de l'Orangerie – Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, Paris, states: "For beyond their connection to a particular space and time, works of art possess the power to bridge cultures, even those at the most distant ends of the globe." It is precisely in this spirit that "Paths to Modernity" is not only a cross-century artistic dialogue, but also a fraternal trail that transcends language and borders.

By leveraging the cultural resonance of visual imagery, the exhibition guides audiences toward independent thinking and broader horizons. At the same time, it bears witness to the deepening cultural trust and mutual learning between China and France in the field of art. For Chinese audiences, this marks an extraordinary opportunity to appreciate such a large-scale presentation of treasures from the Musée d'Orsay's collection on home ground for the first time—an invitation to step into the heart of the world's artistic progression.

The exhibition "Paths to Modernity: Masterpieces from the Musée d'Orsay" will be on view until October 12, 2025. Additionally, Museum of Art Pudong has partnered with China's leading large-scale immersive content brand The Multiverse Project, to introduce "Tonight with the Impressionists, Paris 1874." Launching alongside the museum's main exhibition, this immersive experience is produced by French company Excurio, co-produced by GEDEON Experiences and the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, with academic support from the Musée d'Orsay's senior curators Sylvie Patry and Anne Robbins. The approximately 45-minute journey centred on the landmark exhibition at Nadar's studio in April 1874, transporting audiences back to the streets of Paris that year to explore the origins and impact of this ground-breaking art movement. Participants will encounter several renowned artists and their seminal works alongside original scene locations, including Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet; The Parisian Girl by Pierre-Auguste Renoir; Laundress by Edgar Degas; The Cradle by Berthe Morisot; A Modern Olympia by Paul Cézanne; Hoar Frost by Camille Pissarro; and Bazille's Studio by Frédéric Bazille. In an interactive space blending the real and the virtual, they will witness pivotal milestones in art history. Concurrently, the accompanying catalogue, co-published by Museum of Art Pudong and the Musée d'Orsay, will be released in conjunction with the exhibition. In addition, over two hundred exquisite pieces of exhibition merchandise will be available for purchase, extending the artistic experience from visual narrative to everyday aesthetics and providing the public with multi-layered experience.