Nearly a decade after the immense success of the 2004-2005 Impressionist Treasures exhibition, the Musée d'Orsay is back in Shanghai to present the first major exhibition in the newly-opened China Art Museum inaugurated on 1 October and housed in what used to be the Chinese Pavilion of the 2010 World Fair.  Millet, Courbet and French Naturalism features 87 masterpieces on loan from Musée d’Orsay in Paris, France. Also on display will be paintings by Corot, Bonheur, Lepage, Roll, Renoir, and the Barbizon painters, all exploring the interplay between art, nature and societal changes in the late 19th and early 20th century. One of the highlights of the exhibition is Millet's "The Gleaners", which depicts three women searching for wheat after the harvest.

Alongside Millet and Courbet, all the major protagonists of these pictorial movements are represented: Jules Bastien-Lepage, Alfred Roll, Rosa Bonheur, as well as the painters of the Ecole de Barbizon, including Corot…, artists who broke free from contemporary academic rules to deliver a new vision of nature, but also to represent the men around them, the traditions and also the profound mutations of a fast-changing society.

According to the report by Agence France-Presse, the exhibition will return to France next year in time for an October showing at the Musee d'Orsay, said Olivier Simmat, the museum's head of international affairs.

About the exhibition

Date: 16 November 2012 - 28 February 2013

Venue: Shanghai, China Art Museum

Address: 161 Shang nan Road, Pudong District, Shanghai

Curators:

Stéphane Guégan, curator at the Musée d'Orsay

Xavier Rey, curator at the Musée d'Orsay

Exhibition organised by the China Art Museum, Shanghai and the Musée d'Orsay, Paris.

Courtesy of China Art Museum, Shanghai and the Musée d'Orsay, Paris, for further information please visit www.musee-orsay.fr/en.