In 2026, in order to mark the hundredth anniversary of the artist's death, the Musée d'Orsay is organizing a major exhibition devoted to Mary Cassatt (1844-1926). In France, this will be a long-awaited event: its national museums have never devoted a major exhibition to Mary Cassatt, an active member and pillar of the impressionist group. Her centenary provides an opportunity to examine the central place occupied by this prominent artist who, through talent and determination, succeed in forging a unique identity in late 19th- and early 20th-century art history, on both sides of the Atlantic.

Comprising almost 80 paintings, pastels and prints, and covering the whole of the artist's career, "Mary Cassatt: L'indépendante / Mary Cassatt: Being independent" opens up new perspectives on her work, drawing on unpublished letters and never before exploited sources. Rarely shown works from public and private European collections will be presented, along with paintings and pastels from American collections seldom exhibited outside the United States.

A selection of Cassatt's early works and portraits of her loved ones shows how the artist's social milieu, travels and knowledge of the art of the past shaped her approach and practice. Making it a point of honor to be independent (originally at her wealthy family's request), she soon set herself up in her own studio and started employing paid sitters. In a largely male environment, and against a background of latent nationalism, she rapidly succeeded in establishing herself as a professional painter. 

Curatorship

Paris

Caroline Corbeau-Parsons, Graphic Arts and Paintings Curator, Musée d'Orsay;

Anne Robbins, Curator of Paintings, Musée d'Orsay;

London

Sarah Moulden, Senior Curator of 19th Century Collections, National Portrait Gallery;

Boston

Erica Hirshler, Croll Senior Curator of American Paintings, Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

From 6 October 2026 to 7 February 2027, the Musée national Picasso-Paris presents the exhibition "Kurt Schwitters. Le chaos-monde. 1918-1948", a major retrospective of an artist who stood apart from the Dada movement, from the constructivism and the German abstract art scene, and whose work has not been exhibited in France for over thirty years. Bringing together over three hundred works and documents - paintings, sculptures, blends, collages, drawings, sketchbooks, photographs, books and archives - the exhibition offers an immersion into an exceptional formal and conceptual richness world. It also highlights the link between Schwitters' work to that of Picasso, particularly in their approach to experimentation, blend and transformation of everyday materials.

Exhibition curators

Cécile Godefroy, Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Curator of Painting and
Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York

Johan Popelard, Chief Heritage Curator, Acting Scientific and Collections Director, and Head of the Conservation and Collections Department at the Musée national Picasso-Paris

2026 will be the centenary of the death of the painter Claude Monet (1840-1926). To mark this anniversary, the Musée de l'Orangerie is organizing an exhibition focusing on his body of work's relationship with time. In the 1870s, he was regarded as the impressionist artist par excellence, even though he only took part in five of the group's exhibitions. His work was not long in becoming synonymous with the "new painting", as it seemed to encapsulate the movement's characteristics to the full (usually practiced in the open air, with rapid brushstrokes and clear harmonies capturing momentary impressions), before culminating in one of its most unusual and remarkable extensions. In the 1890s, with such series as Les cathédrales [The Cathedrals], Les meules [The Haystacks] and Les peupliers [The Poplars], the painter adopted an approach that almost seemed to be dissecting time, until the final testament of the Nymphéas [Water Lilies] series, which solved the seemingly insurmountable problem of fragmentation and so merged into the continuum.

Curatorship

Cécile Girardeau, Chief Curator, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris
Sophie Eloy, Collections Officer, Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris

 Exhibition on display:

September 30, 2026, to January 25, 2027, at the Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris

February 25 to June 27, 2027, at Tate Modern, London

An unprecedented exhibition dedicated to Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) and his artistic legacy. From Paul Gauguin to Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, Joan Mitchell, Bridget Riley, and Peter Doig, nearly 180 artworks show how his work has been discovered, interpreted, and transformed, from the late 19th century to the present day.

In the late 1880s, when he was no longer seeking to exhibit his work, artists and collectors discovered Cezanne's work in Père Tanguy's shop. There they found a formal radicalism that reinforced their quest for a "pure" art, already well on the path to abstraction.

Subsequently, Cézanne gradually gained recognition, and his work began to be widely embraced. From the first monographic exhibitions organized by the art dealer Ambroise Vollard to major museum and international events, as well as the first major posthumous exhibitions such as the Salon d'Automne in 1907, he emerged as one of the defining figure of modernity.

His work became a point of reference for the avant-garde movements of the 20th century, which questioned the relationship between painting and reality and found in the idea that "art is a harmony parallel to nature" an essential tool for reflection.

Starting with Cezanne, the triumph of modern art and that of formalism-or the reduction of painting to its fundamental compositional elements-has continually been reworked and transcended. Paul Gauguin, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, Joan Mitchell, Bridget Riley, Peter Doig... From lyrical abstraction and geometric abstraction, to "hard-edge" painting, Cezanne remains a constant point of reference: sometimes claimed, sometimes reinterpreted, always debated. In the age of post-modernism, his status as the "father of modern art" continues to be questioned.

Cezanne et nous is the first exhibition to simultaneously tell this dual story: that of his fundamental influence and, in contrast, the story of the artists who claimed him. The exhibition reveals a complex and multifaceted history shaped by appropriation, artistic lineage, and aesthetic tensions. It invites you to view Cezanne through the successive perspectives he has inspired, culminating in our own contemporary gaze.

Exhibition co-produced by the GrandPalaisRmn, the Centre Pompidou, and the Public Establishment of the Musée d'Orsay and the Musée de l'Orangerie - Valéry Giscard d'Estaing

Curators

Claire Bernardi, Director of the Musée de l'Orangerie

Michel Gauthier, Curator of Contemporary Collections, Musée national d'art moderne - Centre Pompidou

Xavier Rey, Director of the Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Pompidou 

Jean-Rémi Touzet, Curator of Paintings, Musée d'Orsay

Scénographie: Pauline Phelouzat, Architect and Exhibition Designer, Centre Pompidou