The art journal annual museum report visitor numbers around the world has been published. We talk to Lee Cheshire, who co-edited the report, and Charles Saumarez Smith, former director or chief executive of three London museums and galleries – the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery and the Royal Academy of Arts – about importance of numbers are to museums and whether they are a valid indicator of the success of institutions.
by Edgar Degas Absinthe (1875-76) / Edouard Manet plum brandy (circa 1877)
© Patrice Schmidt / Musée d’Orsay NMR distribution
The Manet/Degas exhibition opened this week at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, before heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York later that year. Ben Luke visits the exhibition in Paris and talks with Laurence des Cars, former director of the Musée d’Orsay and now president-director of the Musée du Louvre, and Stéphane Guégan, co-curator of the exhibition.
by Berthe Morisot Woman at her toilet (1875-80)
Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago, Stickney Fund
And in London, an exhibition of paintings by Berthe Morisot, the pioneering impressionist with artistic and family ties to Manet and Degas, opened at the Dulwich Picture Gallery. The Work of the Week for this episode is La Femme à sa toilette (1875-1880) by Morisot. Lois Oliver, curator of the exhibition in Dulwich, tells us about this pivotal image.
• Manet/Degas, Orsay Museum, Paris, until July 23; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, September 24-January 7, 2024
• Berthe Morisot: Shaping Impressionism, Dulwich Photo Gallery, London, until September 10, Musée Marmottan Monet later in 2023 (dates to come)
