If you’re attending Art Basel Paris this year, you may find it hard to leave its splendid new showcase — the revamped Grand Palais. But Paris has a copious buffet of offerings in its museums and art foundations that are definitely worth your time. Here are a few choice picks:
Gustave Caillebotte
You may or may not recognize the name, but Gustave Caillebotte was a key figure in the history of Impressionism. He painted “A Boating Party,” a close-up of a rower in a top hat, which the Musée d’Orsay recently acquired (with the support of LVMH).
You can see that and other Caillebotte masterpieces — such as “The Floor Scrapers” — in an exhibition at the Musée d’Orsay marking the 130th anniversary of his death. “Caillebotte: Painting Men” features 70 works that reveal him as an artist who spent his time with other bachelors and mainly painted male figures.
He also took up philanthropy early on: At 28, he bequeathed his art collection to the French state. So at his death (18 years later), France received 38 paintings and pastels, including some of Orsay’s present-day gems such as Renoir’s “Ball at the Moulin de la Galette” and Manet’s “The Balcony.” All 38 works will be hung together in a single space of the show.
The show travels to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Art Institute of Chicago next year.
