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The Barnes Foundation and the Musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie, Paris, Announce Reciprocal Admission for Members

First reciprocal admission program for members of two international cultural institutions

Philadelphia, PA, June 13, 2019—The Barnes Foundation and the Musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie, Paris, have announced reciprocal free admission for members beginning June 1, 2019. This is the first reciprocal members admission program between American and French arts institutions.

Through this partnership, Barnes members will receive unlimited free admission for themselves and a guest to the Musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie by showing their Barnes membership ID card upon arrival. Members of the Musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie will receive the same benefit at the Barnes Foundation by showing their Carte blanche membership card. At each institution, members and their guests will be granted free access to both permanent collections and special exhibitions.

“Philadelphia and Paris have long shared a strong relationship with myriad artistic and cultural ties. Today, we are thrilled to extend our partnership with the Musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie—which has been growing since we collaborated last year to organize the critically acclaimed exhibitions Renoir: Father and Son/Painting and Cinema and Berthe Morisot: Woman Impressionist, which is opening in Paris next month—with a reciprocal admission program for our members,” says Nina Diefenbach, senior vice president, deputy director for advancement of the Barnes Foundation. “We always strive to offer additional value and new experiences to our members, and this program is not only a wonderful opportunity for members of both institutions, but it also underscores our shared commitments to cross-cultural exchange and discovery.”

Aurélie Cauchy-Laure, director for development, marketing and international affairs at the Musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie, adds: “As sister institutions with world-renowned collections of impressionist and post-impressionist paintings, and deep commitments to scholarship and the presentation of compelling special exhibitions, the Musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie and the Barnes are excited to collaborate on this first-of-its-kind reciprocal admission program for our members.”

Further information about the reciprocal admission program for members can be found on the websites of the Barnes and the Musées d’Orsay et de l’Orangerie.

About the Barnes Foundation

The Barnes Foundation is a nonprofit cultural and educational institution that shares its unparalleled art collection with the public, organizes special exhibitions, and presents programming that fosters new ways of thinking about human creativity. The Barnes collection is displayed in ensembles that integrate art and objects from across cultures and time periods, overturning traditional hierarchies and revealing universal elements of human expression. Home to one of the world’s finest collections of impressionist, post-impressionist, and early modernist paintings—including the largest groups of paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Paul Cézanne in existence—the Barnes brings together renowned masterworks by such artists as Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani, and Vincent van Gogh, alongside ancient, medieval, Renaissance, and non-Western art as well as metalwork, furniture, and decorative art.

The Barnes Foundation was established by Dr. Albert C. Barnes in 1922 to “promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture.” Since moving to the heart of Philadelphia in 2012, the Barnes has expanded its commitment to teaching visual literacy in groundbreaking ways, investing in original scholarship relating to its collection and enhancing accessibility throughout every facet of its program.

The Barnes is open Wednesday–Monday, and tickets can be purchased on-site, online, or by calling 215.278.7200. Ticket prices and current hours are listed on our website.

About the Musée d’Orsay

Located in a refurbished 1900s railway station, the Musée d’Orsay has been renowned worldwide since its opening in 1986. Devoted to the second half of the 19th century, it features collections of artwork primarily created between 1848 and 1914. Its multidisciplinary nature brings together painting, sculpture, decorative art, objets d’art, architecture, drawing, and photography. Upon entering beneath the zenithal light that illuminates the tiered nave, sculptures by Pradier, Clésinger, and Cordier reveal themselves, gradually leading toward Carpeaux’s original sculpted group La Danse. On the terraces you can also admire works by Rodin, as well as Bourdelle and Maillol.

Next come the paintings, found on both sides of the ground floor’s central aisle, in the Impressionist Gallery, and in the rooms on the middle level. All of the artistic movements of the time are represented—impressionism, realism, naturalism, post-impressionism, symbolism, etc.—and the illustrious painters Millet, Courbet, Manet, Degas, Monet, Renoir, Sisley, Pissarro, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Seurat, Gauguin, Vuillard, and Bonnard stand alongside others, no less famous in their time, such as Gérôme, Cabanel, Bouguereau, and Jean-Paul Laurens.

Masterpieces stand side by side, among them Courbet’s monumental The Artist’s Studio, Millet’s iconic The Angelus, Manet’s Olympia and Luncheon on the Grass, Monet’s The Saint-Lazare Station, Degas’s The Ballet Class, Van Gogh’s Starry Night, and Cézanne’s Apples and Oranges. The Musée d’Orsay also offers many pieces of decorative art, with art nouveau represented by the creations of Gallé and Guimard. Architecture has its own dedicated space where models like that of the Paris Opera House are displayed. Temporary displays of drawings and photographs allow one to discover the true richness of the collection.

About the Musée de l’Orangerie

The Musée de l’Orangerie presents two prestigious collections: Les Nymphéas (The Water Lilies), the culmination of Claude Monet’s thinking, a monumental yet intimate work that explores all the variations of light and draws the visitor into a contemplative vision of infinity, and the Walter Guillaume Collection, illustrating the creative work produced in the first decades of the 20th century, with works representing impressionism and modern classicism by Renoir, Cézanne, Modigliani, Soutine, Matisse, and Picasso, among others.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
Deirdre Maher, Director of Communications
215.278.7160, press@barnesfoundation.org
Online press office