Manet / Degas: our photos of the mirror exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay

Everything brings them together and everything opposes them: Manet and Degas are two great figures on the artistic scene of the late 19th century. The Musée d'Orsay offers us a cross portrait of these two artists, through the Manet / Degas exhibition, to be discovered from March 28 to July 23, 2023.

At first glance, Manet and Degas are two fairly similar painters: they frequented the same places, met the same people, painted the same scenes of cafés, streets and horse races... However, the two men are totally opposed as soon as we talk about art.

Training, artistic trend, musical or literary tastes, taste for fame: Manet and Degas are opposite sides of the same coin.

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Manet was a precursor and an independent, refusing academic codes and ignoring the fashions of his time. With his paintings and his choice of subjects, Manet became a regular of scandals: he regularly shocked the small art world of his time. For his part, Degas joined the ranks of the young avant-gardists. The diversity and richness of his subjects and working techniques meant that the artist could never be completely categorized into a single box. However, he remained very close to the Impressionists and their salons.

The two men were friends, despite their differences and rivalry. The exhibition at the Musée d'Orsay highlights these links and ruptures, these commonalities and oppositions. The many works presented tell the story of these painters and the history of their relationship. We admire some of the greatest masterpieces of the two artists, masterpieces that dialogue and trace the fascinating epic of these impressionists and their comrades.

The exhibition is very rich, we admire more than a hundred works, sketches and letters. The paintings are displayed side by side, to better show the similarities and oppositions of the two artists. Their parallel paths are really highlighted by this juxtaposition.

Manet/Degas is the great exhibition of the spring, not to be missed.