A young, naked woman lies apparently fast asleep on a bed of white linen. Just behind, her maid sweeps away, or possibly replaces, the sheet that covered her. This bedroom mini-drama is staged for the benefit of the voyeur in the foreground. He is dressed in a frock coat, has removed his top hat, but still holds his walking stick as he watches intently.
If ever an image captured the concept of the male gaze, it is this painting. A modern Olympia by Cezanne. And it’s interesting for other reasons too. It is one of about fifty paintings – including others by Degas, Monet, Morisot, Pissarro, Renoir and Sisley – that we now consider to have marked the beginning of the Impressionist movement.
Rejected by the art establishment, these radical young artists – who preferred glittering spontaneity to high gloss, color to contrast and modern life to traditional subject matter – showed their work exactly 150 years ago in a photography studio on the Boulevard des Capucines in Paris. A tribute to that exhibition, entitled Paris 1874, inventing impressionismhas just opened at the Musée d’Orsay, recalling what was not only a seminal moment in art history, but also for the French capital.
This was the beginning of the Belle Epoque. Paris had been largely transformed by Haussman’s vast new boulevards; the Franco-Prussian War was over; and the booming economy generated a new sense of optimism and excitement. People had more money and more free time. On sunny afternoons they went to the renovated Bois de Boulogne, on weekends to the coast and in the evenings they went to café concerts and the theater. A spectacular new opera house – the Palais Garnier – was about to rise from the ashes of the old.
Over the next forty years, Paris became the most beautiful, most dynamic and daring city in the world. And the impressionists were there to capture the atmosphere and excitement. Of course there were tensions. Cézanne’s critique of the male gaze recalls the seamier side of Parisian nightlife. Brothels flourished, the Moulin Rouge and the Folies Bergères flourished. But women also began to gain new freedoms, and two of the most important Impressionist artists were Berthe Morisot – who showed nine paintings at the 1874 exhibition – and, slightly later, Mary Cassatt.
What’s striking today is how much of that Belle Époque aesthetic still dominates the city – from the Art Nouveau architecture to the Eiffel Tower and the terraces – and how so little has been allowed into the city over the past 150 years. Only the Tour de Montparnasse and the distant skyscrapers of La Defense cast a few shadows over the city’s human scale.
But that’s the surface charm of Paris: everyone can enjoy it as they wander the streets, squares and gardens. For me, the real fascination lies in the paintings – which not only mark the beginning of modern art, but also tell the story of the everyday life of the Belle Époque. And (as long as you avoid the Olympic Games, which run from July 26 to August 11), there’s never been a better time to explore the city’s amazing artistic heritage. Here’s our guide.
Impressionist Paris
Musee d’Orsay
The special anniversary exhibition, Paris 1874: Inventing Impressionism, runs until July 14. But also reserve some time for the rest of the museum collection. Many of the Impressionist highlights, created after 1874, as well as some earlier works, are in the permanent collection. One of my favorites is Monet’s amazing winter landscape, The magpie. The location itself – Orsay station – is also a Belle Epoque highlight, built for the great Exposition Universelle in 1900. Make sure you book a time slot at the same time as your trip to Paris – it will be a popular exhibition.
Entrance: €16/£13.70 (musee-orsay.fr)
Museum of the Orangery
The two series of water lily paintings that Monet made for the Orangery building in the Tuileries are the culmination of his many studies of his gardens at Giverny. Two elliptical rooms were designed to display the works, and Monet eventually donated them to the French state as a monument to the end of World War I, although the museum did not open until 1927, the year after his death.
Downstairs in the same building is the spectacular collection of Impressionist and later art amassed by collector Paul Guillaume, including more than twenty paintings by Renoir and several Cézannes – including some from his early experiments with Impressionism, as well as works by Modigliani, Matisse and several early Picassos .
Entrance: €12.50/£10.70 (musee-orangerie.fr)
Marmottan Monet Museum
This former hunting lodge, now a large mansion, on the edge of the Bois de Boulogne, has an extensive selection of works by Berthe Morisot and, downstairs in a special gallery, a ground-breaking collection of paintings by Monet, donated by his son Michel, in 1966. They include Impression, Soleil Levant (1872) – from which the movement takes its name and is currently on view in the Musée d’Orsay exhibition – and about twenty of Monet’s late garden and water lily paintings, some examples of his series of Rouen Cathedral and the Palace of Westminster, and curiosities such as the landscapes of his travels to Norway in 1895, the Dutch tulip fields in 1877 and a fantastic account of steam trains at Gare St Lazare from 1877. There is also an early portrait of him by Renoir from 1873.
Entry: €14/£12 (marmottan.fr)
The Petit Palais
The Petit Palais is one of the few museums in the city that offers free admission to everyone. It is an arts and crafts museum, also originally built for the 1900 Exhibition, along with the Grand Palais across the street. It includes two galleries with important paintings by Impressionists and their contemporaries, including those by Cézanne Three swimmersRenoirs Portrait of Mrs. Bonnières and Monet’s Sun setting on the Seine near Lavacourt, from 1878.
Admission: free (petitpalais.paris.fr)
Museum of Montmartre
Renoir’s former home has a permanent collection of paintings, posters and drawings, as well as exhibitions explaining the history of what was once a village on the outskirts of the city, as well as its connections to the Impressionists and the later artistic community. In 1912, one of Renoir’s favorite models, Suzanne Valadon – who became a painter herself – and her son, the artist Maurice Utrillo, came to live there and the museum redesigned her studio in the north attic.
Entrance €15/£12.80 (museedemontmartre.fr/en/)
Belle Époque evenings
Opera Garnier
Ballet dancers and scenes from theater life – especially the social tensions between couples in the boxes – were favorite subjects of several Impressionist painters. There’s nothing like a visit to the Opera Garnier to soak up the atmosphere again, but book your tickets well in advance (operadeparis.fr/en).
Maxims
Paris’s most atmospheric restaurant is an Art Nouveau extravaganza with deep red and purple tones, stained glass windows, murals of topless nymphs, floral lamps and a cabaret stage. It opened just off the Place de la Concorde in 1893, but the current decor dates from 1900 and a Perrier Jouët coupe quickly takes you back to the Belle Epoque. Maxim’s has just reopened after restoration and serves a refreshingly short classic French menu (I recommend the tarte fine with wild mushrooms, followed by scallops, served with crushed potatoes in herbs and beurre blanc).
Mains from €41/£35 (maxims-de-paris.com/en).
Le Train Bleu
Only in Paris would you go to a train station to dine, but only in Paris would you get such good food and beautiful surroundings. The quilted leather banquets, large arched windows, glittering chandeliers, gold cornices supported by stucco cherubs, and ceilings and walls painted with scenes from the Alps and southern France were unveiled in 1901 at the Gare de Lyon.
Three course menu from €74/£63 (le-train-bleu.com/nl).
Essentials
Nick Trend was a guest at Le Meurice (dorchestercollection.com), which doubles from £1,528 per night including breakfast. The hotel was a favorite with British visitors to Paris in the late 19th century, and the view from the rooms on the rue de Rivoli is very similar to Monet’s outlook on the Tuileries Gardens, which was shown at the Third Impressionist Exhibition in 1877 and is now at the Marmottan Monet. The hotel offers a two-hour Monet walking tour of other nearby locations where he painted, including entry to the Musée de l’Orangerie to see the water lilies (€1,070 per person).
Eurostar (eurostar.com) offers return flights to Gare du Nord from London St Pancras from £78. Book weeks or months in advance for the best fares, especially with the Olympics approaching.