A Virtual Visit to Musée d'Orsay's Online Exhibit, "From Station to the Renovated Musée d'Orsay"

Christina Jones 

Field Notes: 03/25/2020 at 11:08 a.m.

Gallery Visit to the “From Station to the Renovated Musée d'Orsay” Online Exhibit, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France (but from my kitchen table!) 

1. I immediately find myself having trouble focusing on what I am seeing. The need to click through the virtual gallery, the inability to walk around a physical gallery space so as to see pieces quite close-up or from far away (depending on my personal desire in a given moment of viewing), and having to zoom with my command keys (command + “+”) feels artificial. 

   1. I wonder in writing this just why I am so put off by the idea of this gallery visit being artificial, whereas I am okay with the virtual concerts being artificial. Maybe it is because this exhibit, “From Station to the Renovated Musée d'Orsay,” was designed to be virtual, whereas the Berliner Philharmoniker concerts that I am attending were live concerts, in front of physical, human audiences, that have been recorded and are made available through these recordings. In other words, maybe the fact that these musical concerts were once conventional, as opposed to being purely-virtual, makes them feel more natural and therefore more palatable to me? Or, maybe it is because I have such a deep love for the act of going to, and walking through, museum spaces that I find this virtual museum to be so off-putting. 

2.  It is worth noting that I have been to Musée d'Orsay in person (in the conventional way), and that it is a museum with which I have many sentimental and personal-feeling associations. I think about eating lunch in the museum gardens during the first week of June with my friend, after we have just closed out our freshman years of college at our different institutions, and about how we walked through the outdoor sculpture garden in the shade - a nice (and, on my friend’s part, welcomed) contrast from the hot sun under which we had been walking on the street to get to the museum). I remember finding myself in a dream-like state at this museum, this special, one-of-a-kind museum.  

   1. I wonder if virtually visiting galleries at museums which one has already visited in a physical sense makes it more difficult to enjoy the virtual visits. I will learn more about the extent to which this is true for me as I conduct other virtual gallery visits. 

3. I find the photograph described in the bottom-left corner as “Vue générale de la gare d'Orsay en activité”, which dates back to 1905, to be striking. 

   1. The figure in the bottom-left corner of the photograph is moving slightly, almost with a kind of grace. The figure’s hair is up in a bun, atop their head. The figure dons an elegant, seemingly-lightweight coat - some sort of animal’s fur, maybe? (Hope not)

   2. The fact that the upper-right corner of the photograph is out of focus and less defined than the other components of the piece give a humanness to the scene: railway stations are never immaculate, or perfectly-composed. They are centers of movement, traffic, coming to places and leaving them behind. It feels appropriate that the photograph is not perfectly composed. 

      1. Moreover, the lack of focus in parts of the frame reminds me of the photograph’s age, and this photograph’s life of 115 years is charming! The longevity is worthy of celebration - !!** and it hits me all at once (though this feels glaringly obvious and unnecessary to actually point out) that the fact that this is a piece I am accessing by way of taking a virtual gallery tour means that its longevity can now be eternal. This precious photograph from 1905 will never be lost or forgotten, for it lives online!

4. I am also quite charmed by the photograph described as “La nef du musée d'Orsay en chantier,” meaning, “Building works in the Nave of the Musée d'Orsay” (1984). 

   1. I love the subtle opulence of the ivory-like glass windows at the top of the structure. The gentle purplish-grayish-blue color of the stain is simultaneously lovely and somber. 

      1. The orange scaffolding structures below provide visually-appealing contrast. Talk about a beautiful construction site! Even the scaffolding allows for complementing. 

   2. I see no humans in this scene, which I find interesting. Only cranes, and metal and glass structures. 

      1. A human must surely have taken the photograph, though. It was taken in 1984 … although, come to think of it, a machine might very well have been employed to capture this moment. Who knows… 

         1. !!!** The question of what the human’s role in this scene is raised for me, and it is one which I as a real, living, physically-composed human being find myself asking with an enhanced sense of urgency as I view this photograph virtually, almost as if I crave evidence that other human beings are involved with the composition and/ or viewing of this piece, and that my laptop and I are not alone in this process. Strange. 

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