Giorgio De Chirico, the exhibition at the Musée de l'Orangerie: our photos

The Musée de l'Orangerie takes us into the metaphysical world of Giorgio De Chirico (1888-1978), more than 10 years after the retrospective organized by the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris. For this exhibition, initially scheduled to run from September 16 to December 14, 2020 (and closed on October 29), the focus was on the Italian painter's metaphysical period, which had brought him success.

De Chirico began this metaphysical period early, at the age of 21, during a trip to Florence. He explained to his friend Fritz Gartz : "A new air has flooded my soul - I have heard a new song - and the whole world now seems totally transformed to me - the autumn afternoon has arrived - the shadows long, the air limpid, the sky gay - in a word Zarathustra has arrived, you have understood me". (editor's note: Zarathustra is a poet-prophet figure, used parodically by Friedrich Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra, where the prophet goes off into the mountains and returns among men).

Giorgio de Chirigo attended theAcademy of Fine Arts in Athens from an early age... When he left Athens for Munich on the death of his sister and father, he took classes with the painter Carl von Marr (1858-1936), and discovered the works ofFriedrich Nietzsche and Arthur Schopenhauer, as well as the paintings of Arnold Böcklin, who for him was "the most poetically profound painter [et] was also an immense realist".

After his stay in Italy, the painter arrived in France and exhibited at the Salon d'Automne in 1912. However, it was not until a few months later that Apollinaire noticed his work. The writer wrote: "The art of this young painter is a cerebral interior art that bears no relation to that of the painters who have emerged in recent years. It comes neither from Matisse nor Picasso, nor from the Impressionists. This originality is new enough to be worth noting.

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This is how the painter was welcomed and admired by the Surrealists: Paul Guillaume (to whom most of the works exhibited at the Musée de l'Orangerie belong) was Giorgio de Chirico's very first dealer. The onirism in Giorgio de Chirico's work was used in the nascent Surrealism, from Magritte and Ernst to Picabia and Eluard. Returning to Italy in 1925, he turned once again to realism, and lost his success...

Please note that it's been over 4 years since our last visit, so the place and experience may have changed.