My favorite painting at the Musee d'Orsay I would have to most definitely say was Claude Monet's Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe (Luncheon on the Grass).
The reason I loved this painting so much is because of its size. The entire piece takes up two canvases and catches the eye from far away.
Monet was a French painter who mainly created impressionistic works. He was born in Paris, France the 14th of November 1840 and died December 5th, 1926. Monet worked very hard in his scenery paintings to capture light correctly. He would often paint the same piece of scenery over and over to capture the different types of light throughout the day. Some of his most famous paintings are of water lilies.
Francis Schaeffer was an American Christian theologian, philosopher, and pastor. Through his Four Standards of Judgement, we are able to view art as a World View. The first of his Four Standards of Judgement is technical excellence which involves aspects like color and balance. Monet uses color marvelously to create dimension and light in his paintings. The second standard is validity. Validity is the reason the artist created the piece and what it represents. Next is World View, which can be right or wrong. Every piece of art has a World View. Last, is suitability of form to content. Did the artist get their message across in the piece?
In Monet's piece, he features the members of his intimate circle. Monet was attempting to rival a painting done by Manet (Dejeuner sur l'herbe) and create a stir in 1866 but he was never able to finish it to the extent he wanted. He was then no longer able to pay his rent and offered the painting as security (though it was in poor condition already). So to save what he could, he cut it up.
I found it very interesting to learn the story behind Monet's painting. It made me love it more because it is so beautifully imperfect!