The Musée d’Orsay brings together 100 works to tell the story of the climate

When he paints Trout in 1873, Gustave Courbet could not imagine that this still life would be, 150 years later, the precious archive of a bygone world. This species, once so abundant in the Loue river, crossing Franche-Comté, the artist’s native region, is today experiencing a massive decline. Kept at the Musée d’Orsay, this painting is part of the hundred works chosen by the institution for “tell the climate” as part of a national-scale operation, presented this Tuesday, January 21 by the museum with the Ministry of Culture.

Among the selected masterpieces (bringing together sculptures, paintings, photographs, drawings, etc.), 49 will be exhibited in 31 museums located throughout France, from March to July 2025. The others will be part of a thematic route within the Orsay collections.

At the same time, the book 100 works that tell the story of the climate will be published in March 2025. The work brings together the texts of curators from the Parisian museum and four climate experts renowned: Jean Jouzel, Valérie Masson-Delmotte, Emma Haziza, Luc Abbadie. The latter were invited to “conduct an analysis of climate change through the works of the museum’s collections. »

“Climate archives”

1850 turns out to be a key date for the climate as the consumption of fossil fuels intensifies during this period.

From devastating fires in Los Angeles to Cyclone Chido in Mayotte, “the news reinforces our conviction that museums have a role to play,” says Sylvain Amicpresident of the Musée d’Orsay and initiator of the project upon his arrival at the head of the institution last April. A proposal which immediately “echoed the concerns of the conservation team”, specifies Servane Dargnies-de Vitry, painting conservator, recalling that “we only have five years left to limit global warming at 1.5 degrees. Following Donald Trump’s announcement of the United States’ withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, the museum is positioning itself as a ally for scientists who have been warning people about the subject for years because “the battle for the climate is now cultural”.

The Girodet museum, which willingly joined the operation of the Musée d’Orsay, was the victim of a terrible rise in water levels in 2016.

-

The subject has become obvious to the national museum whose collections are beginning in the middle of the 19th century^e century. 1850 turns out to be a key date for the climate as the consumption of fossil fuels intensifies during this period. A multitude of works from the 19th century^e and the beginning of the 20th century^e century – notably landscape paintings – thus appear to us today as “climate archives”according to Servane Dargnies-de Vitry. We therefore find, among the 100 selected works, works by Claude Monet, Gustave Caillebotte, Théodore Rousseau, Eugène Fromentin, Pierre Bonnard…

Museums united in the face of climate change

Beyond the testimony that works of art constitute, museums themselves bear the costs of climate change, very concretely. In Montargis (Loiret), the Girodet museumwho willingly joined the operation of the Musée d’Orsay, was the victim of a terrible rising waters in 2016. 90% of its collections were flooded. “Eight years later, only 40% of the works have been restored,” indicates Sidonie Lemeux-Fraitot, director of the establishment which will present an exhibition of its precious Maximilien Luce collection while raising public awareness of the risks of climate change.

“The works become a space for exchange and debate for everyone, including the most remote audiences, who are also the most concerned by climate change,” declares Benjamin Foudral, director of the museum and the Courbet center in Ornans (Doubs). A position approved by the Minister of Culture Rachida Data who sees in this initiative nationale “a demonstration in action” of the policy that it wishes to defend: “culture to all, for all and throughout the territory. » The Musée d’Orsay already has repeat the operation next year this time on the theme of work.