The Musée d’Orsay is partnering with 12 museums around France in a project that uses impressionist art to highlight climate change – works that collectively tell the story of human enterprise at the end of the 19th century, and the role artists of the time played in unintentionally documenting the causes of the environmental crisis we are witnessing today.
Sitting on the left bank of the Seine River in Paris, the Musée d’Orsay was originally a railway station, erected for the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition to show off France’s first fleet of electric trains.
This was a period marked by great transformation and development in society, celebrating machinery, transport, medicine and invention.
It was also the heyday of Impressionism, a movement in which artists painted outdoors from life, rather than in a studio from sketches, capturing the fleeting effects of light and colour.
This period also coincided with the origin of atmospheric measurements, which continue to inform scientists today about the pace of global warming, which has increased considerably in recent decades.
Saved from demolition in the 1970s, the Gare d'Orsay was transformed into a temple of art, focused on work produced between 1850 and 1914.
Today, the Musée d'Orsay's project "100 works that tell the story of the climate" invites the public to take a closer look at artworks from the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the stories they tell, from both an artistic and scientific perspective.
"The battle for the climate is now a cultural one" Servane Dagnies-de Vitry, curator of the project, told RFI.
Climatologists, she says, are aware that facts and figures don’t always drive home the urgency of the environmental message – and that's where art and culture come into the picture.
Beyond the beauty of the landscapes and the technical rendering of human endeavour, these works represent a certain fragility and ephemeral quality in the face of change and progress, she said.
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"Artists, by definition, could not have been aware of the greenhouse effect we know so well today," she added. "Nevertheless, the artists sensed that the world was changing,"
Dagnies-de Vitry gave the example of the painter Théodore Rousseau, who fought to preserve part of the Fontainebleau forest, south east of Paris, where he often set up his easel to paint the landscape.
"He believed that too much logging was being done in this forest for industry, which led to the creation of the world's first nature reserve," she explained.
From Brest, to Tulle, Avignon and Pont-Aven, the project sees 49 paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures loaned to smaller museums in 12 different regions around France, from March until July. The 51 other works are on display around the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, with a specially designed guide available for visitors.
Each museums has organised public conferences, guided tours and workshops covering the environmental themes evoked by the artworks, such as deforestation, loss of biodiversity, pollution and the use of fossil fuels.
French climatologist Jean Jouzel is one of four experts interviewed by the Musée d'Orsay in a book published in parallel to the project.
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A specialist in greenhouse gases, he was behind the first study demonstrating the link between atmospheric CO2 concentration and global warming, published in 1987.
Using ice samples from the 1980s that came from the Soviet-run Vostok station in Antarctica, his team was able to reconstruct carbon dioxide levels over the last 10,000 years.
Their findings showed that "the concentration of carbon dioxide had never been so high as after the 19th century... undeniably marking the influence of the industrial revolution," he said.
In partnering with regional museums over several months, the Musée d'Orsay is bringing a focus to the very regions that inspired the artworks, and which are directly affected by climate change, Dargnies-de Vitry explained.
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The town of Ornans, whose museum is borrowing "The Trout" by the painter Gustave Courbet, who was from the town in the eastern region of Franche-Comté-Bourgonge. Once abundant, the species is now dying out and its habitat, the Loue River, is under threat.
Elsewhere, the Girodet Museum in Montargis, central France, will play host to "Flood at Port-Marly" by Alfred Sisley, painted in 1876. The museum's own collection was severely damaged by an episode of flooding in 2016.
"Art, literature and cinema can arouse emotions, shape stories to transform consciousness," Dargnies-de Vitry said, adding that she wonders whether such emotional responses can give rise to more ambitious action when it comes to protecting the environment. Time will tell.
"100 works that tell the story of the climate" can be seen at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and 12 regional museums around France until July.
