Treasures of the Musee D'Orsay (Tiny Folio)

All the pleasures of 19th-Century art, from Manet's Luncheon on the Grass to Van Gogh's Bedroom at Arles and Seurat's Circus, are showcased in this handsomely designed volume of works selected by the former director of France's extraordinary and popular museum. Located in a soaring Parisian train station that has been transformed into a wildly popular museum, the Musee d'Orsay boasts the world's most impressive collection of art created from 1848 to the early years of the twentieth century. Since its opening in December 1986, some thirty million visitors have marveled at both the museum's permanent collections and the exhibitions that it has presented at the nearby Grand Palais. Every aspect of the museum's collection-oil paintings, sculpture, decorative arts, pastels, drawings and watercolors, architecture, and photography is well represented here in full-color, generously sized reproductions made from new photographs taken especially for this project. A lively essay by the museum's former director, Françoise Cachin, provides a knowledgeable introduction to the history of the museum and of its far-ranging collections. In addition, concise essays at the start of each chapter illuminate the illustrations that follow. As Mme. Cachin says in her conclusion: may this book "help the reader preserve vivid memories of the quality and the variety of works seen at this museum.