American Friends Musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie

American Friends Musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie Strengthening ties between Americans & the Musée d’Orsay & the Musée de l'Orangerie while supporting one of the world’s greatest collections of French Art.

We support:
Exhibitions in France & the USA
Supporting the museum’s ongoing commitment to share works of art and collaborate with American museums, enriching exhibitions viewed in the United States and in Paris. Education resources in English
We encourage and assist the museum’s efforts to include English in all of its education efforts—wall text, tours, electronic and print resources. Library and

archives
AFMO promotes the seldom seen, but very used, documentation library. Capital improvements to enhance the experience of museum visitors AFMO supports building renovations to enable state-of-the art settings for more than a million Americans who visit the much loved museums. American art included in exhibitions
AFMO supports the Orsay’s inclusion of contemporary, and earlier American artists. Acquisitions and Restoration
AFMO supports collection restoration, and acquisition of new works.

French sculptor, James Pradier, began his studies in his hometown of Geneva before entering the Ecole des Beaux Art in 1...
06/09/2026

French sculptor, James Pradier, began his studies in his hometown of Geneva before entering the Ecole des Beaux Art in 1811, in the studio of the sculptor Frédéric Lemot. Pradier quickly became one of Lemot’s most brilliant students, winning the Grand Prix de Rome in 1812.

A central theme in his work was the female figure, however his style cannot simply be reduced to the introduction of pleasant sensuality into an antique repertoire. This is exemplified by the work shown above: Sappho. The statue combines the nobility of marble with the subject’s dignity yet the meditative intensity of her expression gives her presence an intense interiority. She appears in despair.

Little is known about Sappho. Probably born to an aristocratic family on the island of Le**os around 620 BCE, Sappho was regularly cited as one of the greatest poets of Antiquity. Often referred to as ‘the Poetess’ and hailed by Plato as ‘the tenth Muse’. Many of her songs centred around the overwhelming power of love.

This statue was displayed at the Salon in 1852. When James Pradier passed suddenly, she was covered with a black veil and he was posthumously awarded the medal of honor.

Photo: Francois-Xavier Watine, WebStyleStory. October 2025

Retour en images of last Saturday night at the Musée d’Orsay. What a night! Thank you to everyone who came. To view more...
06/06/2026

Retour en images of last Saturday night at the Musée d’Orsay. What a night!

Thank you to everyone who came. To view more highlights and the gallery of our Springtime Cocktail, visit the link in bio.

All image credits: Ekaterina Aseeva / WebStyleStory, May 2026.

06/05/2026

Last week, our members were privy to a before-hours tour of the seminal exhibition “Sèvres, une passion Rothschild. De la Villa Ephrussi à Paris” at the Mobilier National. Guided by Viviane Mesqui, curator at Sèvre - Musée national de céramique, our guests delved into the history of this exceptional porcelain collection.

AFMO members get exclusive access to visits at the Musée d’Orsay, the Musée de l’Orangerie, as well as off-site visits. To find out more, visit the link in bio.

Rousseau’s artistic career evolved in Parisian neighbourhoods undergoing complete transformations, around Montparnasse w...
06/02/2026

Rousseau’s artistic career evolved in Parisian neighbourhoods undergoing complete transformations, around Montparnasse where he lived. Surrounded by artisans and merchants from the petite bourgeoisie, he painted numerous paintings of his entourage, such as the one shown above. Some of these works would be commissioned, while others served as currency to settle bills.

Shown above is ‘La Noce’. At first sight, this work appears to look like a photographic portrait of a wedding, the protagonists posing in formal attire for the photographer. Yet, there is something surreal about this representation. The characters’ feet are missing, as often is the case in Rousseau’s work. The bride appears to float. Her veil sits upon her grandmother’s dress, contradicting the perspective suggested by the placement of each character at a different level in the composition. This was not a clumsy mistake but intentional, deliberate choice as Rousseau repainted the work to achieve this effect. The bride is like an apparition suspended in air.

Rousseau introduces an element of the bizarre to reality. The dog in the foreground, comically oversized and awkward as he is, acts as a repoussoir or device to take the eye deep into the composition, asserting Rousseau as a master of spatial paradox.
The group is framed by stylised trees that are too small and have improbable foliage. Combined with the yellow ochre background and ethereally intense blue sky, a kind of mandorla is created around the group.

‘La Noce’ is currently on show in exhibition “Henri Rousseau. A Painter’s Ambition”, on display until July 20th, 2026.

Shown here: Henri Rousseau, “La Noce”, 1905, © RMN-Grand Palais (Musée de l’Orangerie) / Hervé Lewandowski

05/29/2026

Earlier this month, the Musée d’Orsay inaugurated their new permanent gallery thanks to AFMO’s support: the ‘To Whom Do These Works Belong?’ Gallery. Curated by Dr. Ines Rotermund-Reynard and François Blanchetière, this gallery presents rotating installations of MNR works, inviting visitors to engage with their histories and the research currently underway in a space conceived for reflection and remembrance.

This gallery is only one facet of the Musée d’Orsay Provenance Research Program, which AFMO is proud to support. The museum has committed to a five-year research project aiming to address the information gap on 225 works in the Orsay’s collection looted during the N**i and Vichy Regimes and returned to France at the war’s end. These works are known today as Musées Nationaux Récupération, or MNR. They do not belong to the State, which holds them only on a provisional basis until their rightful owners are found.

AFMO is proud to support an initiative that advances transparency, historical understanding, and the responsible stewardship of cultural heritage. Over the coming five years, AFMO will fund a team of art historians and researchers led by provenance expert Dr. Rotermund-Reynard. Her team will investigate the ownership histories of the 225 MNR works in the Musée d’Orsay’s collection, as well as approximately 200 pieces acquired after 1933.

The ‘To Whom Do These Works Belong’ gallery is now open to the public and is located on the ground floor of the Musée d’Orsay in Room 10B, at the end of the nave.

In the spring of 1883, Renoir completed three life-size paintings of dancing couples: ‘Dance at Bougival’ (Slide 1), ‘Ci...
05/28/2026

In the spring of 1883, Renoir completed three life-size paintings of dancing couples: ‘Dance at Bougival’ (Slide 1), ‘City Dance’ (Slide 2), and ‘Country Dance’ (Slide 3). These marked a shift in style for Renoir as the figures retain the softness and ease of Impressionism but emphasise form and outline. The three ‘Dances’ mark the epitome of Renoir’s representation of couples and are undoubtedly the best depictions of modern love. ‘Dance at Bougival’, set during a Sunday afternoon ball in a village ten miles west of Paris with a somewhat dubious reputation, is the most romantic of these works.

The female model represented in both ‘Dance at Bougival’ and ‘City Dance’ is a seventeen-year-old Marie-Clementine Valadon, better known today as Suzanne Valadon, the renowned Post-Impressionist painter. Her counterpart is Paul Lhote, a writer and friend of Renoir’s. The joy and passion shared by these two is evident in ‘Dance at Bougival’. The man’s eyes are masked by his boatman’s straw hat, yet he expresses his intentions through his body language. The woman completes the harmony, both visually and sensually, that is at the heart of this painting. Their ungloved hands clasped together, the proximity of their faces and her absorbed, half-closed gaze announce a public intimacy that would have read as flirtatious in the 1880s. Renoir, however, protects them with a ring of circular rhythms: the sweep of the skirt, the loop of the man’s arm, the turn of their clasped fingers, and the flicker of green‑blue brushwork in the trees. These spirals allow us, as viewers, to not only see their dance but to hear it.

‘Dance at Bougival’, ‘Country Dance’, and ‘City Dance’ are all currently on show in the Musée d’Orsay’s exhibition “Renoir and Love. A Joyful Modernity (1865-1885)”, on display until July 19th 2026.

AFMO members benefit from skip-the-line and early hours access to this exhibition.

05/22/2026

AFMO is proud to support “Youssef Nabil. To Dream Again”, on display at the until September 13th, 2026.

Born in 1972, Franco-Egyptian photographer and videographer, Youssef Nabil, draws inspiration from the concept of memory...
05/19/2026

Born in 1972, Franco-Egyptian photographer and videographer, Youssef Nabil, draws inspiration from the concept of memory and the cinematic universe he grew up admiring in his native country, Egypt. Nabil began his career at the age of 20 by staging tableaux in which his subjects acted out melodramas recalling film stills from the golden age of Egyptian cinema. His works’ ethereal aesthetics take from the hand coloring photography technique of the technicolor films. By hand-painting each of his black and white photographs, he makes variations out of editions, each a unique version of his labor. His photographs provide an escape from reality, funneled through his cinematographic sensibility. They are marked by a sense of calm, safety and pleasure, flirting with notions of exoticism and eroticism. The images seamlessly defies the confines of genres, melding together to create a dreamlike sensual mise en scène.

His art borrows from the registers of dream and nostalgia, seeking to escape from questions of identity to embody an idealized and fantasized Mediterranean world without borders. In the artist’s eyes, Egypt is the setting for an accepted, sensual orientalism, with images that make fresh use of its codes: warm, bright colors bathing in a tranquil atmosphere composed of desires and dreams, depicting a free Orient, without prohibition or censure.

This exhibition marks a full-circle moment for the artist, who first visited the Musée d’Orsay at the age of 20. Since then, the museum’s collections have continuously inspired his work, as evidenced by the works shown above: Nabil’s ‘Self-Portrait with Roots’ and Odilon Redon’s ‘Sommeil de Caliban’. This exhibition is conceived as a conversation between the artist’s work and the Musée d’Orsay’s collection. The exhibition title “To Dream Again (De rêver encore)” highlights the central role of dreams in Youssef Nabil’s work, as well as in the Orientalist and Symbolist movements that inspire it.

AFMO is proud to support “Youssef Nabil. To Dream Again”, on display until September 13th, 2026.

05/18/2026

This morning, our members had the Musée d’Orsay entirely to themselves for a private visit of “Renoir. Dessinateur”. Empty halls, masterpieces, and no crowds.

When you join AFMO, you’re not just unlocking exclusive experiences like this one. You’re also directly supporting the and the

Find the link to become a member in our bio.

In April 1874, Edgar Degas took part in the first Impressionist exhibition and presented a ballet scene. He had been fa...
02/06/2026

In April 1874, Edgar Degas took part in the first Impressionist exhibition and presented a ballet scene. He had been fascinated with the world of ballet since the early 1860s, literally acting as an artist-reporter. With the help of a musician friend of his, Degas ventured backstage, where he undoubtedly found inspiration as nearly a thousand of his paintings and drawings are devoted to the dancers of the Opera.

Though today, Degas’s “danseuses” are admired, this was not always the case. In the 19th century, art was not supposed to represent reality but to transcend it. As such, the sometimes unattractive faces of these young ballerinas, with their tired or discouraged expressions, appeared crude to certain critics. It was Degas’s statue “The Little Dancer Aged Fourteen” which, when first exhibited in 1881, aroused the most intense criticism. The ballerina’s facial expression was described as be***al and vicious whilst the exposure of the young dancer’s body was deemed indecent. Yet it is Degas’s realistic depiction of bodies which explain the success of his dancers. For at the end of the 19th century, ballet was suffering a certain decline, and the (mostly male) public seemed to attend performances only to admire the pretty ballerinas. A cliché that isn’t one, as evidenced by the hidden story of “The Little Dancer Aged Fourteen”.

Her real name was Marie van Goethem. Born into a poor and illiterate family, she was sent to the Opéra to meet and seduce wealthy men, rather than to learn a trade. When Degas chose Marie as his model he knew the little girl’s story perfectly (without being among those who abused her). It was this reality which he chose to present to the Parisian public: a child dancer who seemed to offer herself up and before whom critics feigned outrage, for everyone knew the reality of the young ballet students at the Opéra in the 19th century.

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