On Saturday 11th November the History of Art department took a trip to Paris for the day.

The students were wowed by works of art that were familiar to them from their classes, and seeing the original paintings rather than digital reproductions was a real treat. At the Musee D’Orsday they were stunned by 19th-century works such as Cabanel’s Birth of Venus, shocked by Manet’s more daring Olympia and by the scale of Courbet’s Burial at Ornans.

At the Centre Pompidou we revelled in 20th-century modernism, looking at masterpieces by Matisse, Picasso, Kandinsky and Duchamp, among other fantastic works on display. We paid a quick visit to the reconstructed studio of sculptor Constantin Brancusi, just outside the museum, to see his beautifully spiritual and daringly modern sculptures. We had a wonderful art-packed day in Paris!