The Musée d’Orsay is a museum in Paris, which houses the most beautiful European and French artworks from the 19th and the 20th Century. This museum is actually a converted train station, which houses many artworks that include sculptures, furniture, photography, and paintings. Below is the list of most charming artworks that should not be missed during your Museum Orsay tour.

A Burial at Ornans by Gustave Courbet

Gustave Courbet’s paintings were very unique and different, typically characterizing French Realism. His paintings clearly depict how he rejected the works of Romanticism and academic convention that were popular at that time. Courbet created paintings that provided social awareness, and he represented the real life of the peasant class in his paintings.

“A Burial at Ornans” was made placing the poor society in the front and center, which was not attempted by other artists until that time. The privilege to be the main characters of the paintings at that time was only given to the wealthy class. The painting also shows Christ hanging on the cross while remaining unnoticed by the mourners.

Bal du Moulin de la Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Just as Gustave Courbet’s painting depicted peasantry, Pierre-Auguste Renoir showsthe rise of café culture and the bourgeoisie class in Bal du Moulin de la Galettethat engulfed Paris during the 1870’s.

By the 1850’s and 1860’s, Baron Haussmann redesigned Paris from a dirty and restricted town of the Middle Ages to a modern city. Paris became home to writers, artists, and rich revelers. Renoir shows this new look of Paris in his painting, where people live a fun-filled day with their friends dancing and drinking. This also gives you an idea about the fashion and high-spiritedness of that period.

Dinner at the Ball by Edgar Degas

“Dinner at the Ball” exhibited at the Musée d’Orsay is a small painting by Edgar Degas. The painting is also an impressive and characterizing piece of social commentary. This painting too images a society just like the painting by Renoir. However, this painting is more like a warning to the bourgeois extravaganza.

It shows an environment having extreme gratification in pleasure and luxury, full of chandeliers, costly suits, and dresses, rich decorations in gold and red colors. It is certainly a must-see artwork during your Museum Orsay tour.