The masterpieces of 19th century French art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York paid a visit to Berlin in 2007. About 150 outstanding works by the most important artists from the 19th century – paintings by Ingres, Corot, Courbet, Puvis de Chavannes, Manet, Degas, Pissarro, Monet, Cézanne, Gauguin, Bonnard and Matisse as well as sculptures by Rodin, Degas and Maillol – were on display exclusively at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin from 1 June through to 7 October 2007. Refurbishment and extension of the 19th century galleries of the Metropolitan Museum of Art open up the unique possibility to see these exceptional works in Europe which rarely or never leave New York.

A profound change in the representation of visible reality dominates the art of the 19th century. The concept of realism replaces romanticism, the artists’ individuality strongly gains in importance and the capturing of a fleeting moment becomes the eponymous idea with the Impressionists. France is the undisputed heart of art’s development in the 19th century. The art created there establishes the base of Modernism, beginning before the turn of the century. Seminal highlights of this epoch such as Ingres’ “Odalisque in Grisaille”, Courbet’s “Woman with a Parrot”, Manet’s “Boating”, Degas’ “The Dancing Class”, Monet’s “La Grenouillère”, Gauguin’s “Ia Orana Maria (Hail Mary)” and Rodin’s impressive sculpture “The Burghers of Calais” will for the first time be on view together in Berlin.

Besides the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art houses the largest and most important collection of 19th century French art. The visitor will experience the intriguing diversity of art from the 19th century not present in this breadth in any German museum. Temporarily, the exhibition complements the fantastic collection of German art from that period in the Alte Nationalgalerie to a comprehensive panorama of this time of novelties and change.

Following the great success of “Das MoMA in Berlin” this repeated cooperation with one of the world’s largest museums again demonstrates Berlin’s close network. The outstanding highlight of the art world in 2007 brought the prettiest Frenchmen from New York to Berlin.