A Virtual Journey to Paris in the Late 19th Century Enjoy these virtual museum tours.

National Gallery of Art 

Degas at the Opera – March 1 – July 5, 2020

An exuberant display of fecund imagination and keen observation, Edgar Degas’s renowned images of the Paris Opéra are among the most sophisticated and visually compelling works he ever created. Celebrating the 350th anniversary of the Opéra’s founding, Degas at the Opéra will present approximately 100 of the artist’s best-known and beloved works in a range of media, including paintings, pastels, drawings, prints, and sculpture. It will be accompanied by a fully illustrated exhibition catalog.

Virtual Tour of Degas at the Opera

The virtual tours of this exhibition can be a bit tricky at first, but once you get the hang of it they are quite rewarding. Once you have clicked onto the BIG ARROW to get into the tour you click again and your computer’s small arrow appears inside a white circle that you move into and around the rooms.  There are also other audio and video tours that you can explore for the same exhibition. 

Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Listening in Paris: French Music in the Late 19th Century

In the second half of the 19th century, French composers strove create a new style of music, different from that of their German and Italian contemporaries. From the concert stage, the opera house, and even the neighborhood cabaret, French composers forged an unforgettably new music, one that emphasized the sheer beauty of sound itself. Join Elizabeth Seitz to explore this rich repertoire. Elizabeth Seitz, head, Music History, Boston Conservatory at Berklee  April 10, 2019

The Stars of Paris: Food and Drink during the Belle Epoque

The Belle Époque was a time of growth, innovation and the arts in late 19th-century Paris. It was also a celebrated time for French food and drink. Champagne flowed for the wealthy while artists were inspired by absinthe. Haute cuisine could be savored at the Hôtel Ritz and Maxim’s, while brasseries and cafés provided social sips and bites for everyday life. Join wine and spirits educator Erika Frey for a virtual taste of the culture of food and drink during the Belle Époque. Erika Frey, CS, CWE, Diploma WSET, wine and spirits educator and consultant  May 1, 2019

An American in Paris: Cassatt, Degas, and the Impressionists in the 1870s.

Erica Hirshler, Croll Senior Curator of American Paintings, Art of the Americas “I took leave of conventional art,” related Mary Cassatt about her arrival in Paris in 1874. “I began to live.” Explore Cassatt’s innovative paintings and prints in the context of the international art scene of the French capital at the dawn of the Impressionist movement. April 12, 2016