Super close to our hotels, the Musée d’Orsay has organised the first French solo showing of work by Brazilian artist Lucas Arruda, modern painted pieces that are neither abstract nor figurative, with a very obvious Impressionist influence.

Deserts, skies, forests…For over fifteen years Lucas Arruda has been painting from memore, never photographs, creating small-format dreamlike images that he calls Deserto-Modelo (models of deserts), a title inspired by the Brazilian poet João Cabral de Melo Neto.

The title of the exhibition Qu’importe le paysage also has a poetic root, being taken from a prose poem by Manuel Bandeira, a Brazilian poet who died in 1968, qui a écrit “Que importa a paisagem, a Glória, a baía, a linha do horizonte? – O que eu vejo é o beco.” (which roughly translates to: So much for the landscape, the Glória, the bay, the line of the horizon? What I see is the street”.

The ties to Brazil are very present, and in the exhibition you’ll no doubt feel the dramatic tension, movement and light of the paintings that inspire simple, spontaneous introspection, with a presentation in juxtaposition with works from the museum’s collections – Cézanne, Pissarro, Morisot, Courbet… One room is actually entirely dedicated to comparisons with paintings by Monet.

The exhibition is just one of the events that form the Saison France-Brésil 2025 (2025 France-Brazil season), and it’s not only the first large exhibition of the artist’s work in France, but also the first time that the Musée d’Orsay has invited an artist from the southern hemisphere to show their work there.

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The exhibition Lucas Arruda – Qu’importe le paysage is at the Musée d’Orsay (here) until 20th July 2025

Open every day except Mondays from 9.30am-6pm (9.45pm Thursdays)

Admission: 16€ / 13€ (12€ Thursdays after 6pm)

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