Image: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
The Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum will present 'Living Joyfully in the Present', an exhibition of about 110 works from the Musée d'Orsay, from November 14, 2026, to March 28, 2027. The project is being organized to coincide with the museum’s 100th anniversary and will bring to Tokyo a selection of paintings and works associated with some of the most familiar names in 19th- and early 20th-century French art, including Jean-François Millet, Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet and Paul Gauguin.
According to the exhibition website, the show centers on the theme of “living joyfully in the present,” and gathers works chosen from the Musée d'Orsay’s collection of roughly 100,000 objects. The presentation is structured in seven sections that focus on hope, affection and the small, memorable moments of life. The museum says the exhibition has been conceived as a celebration of both the Musée d'Orsay’s 40th anniversary and the Tokyo museum’s centenary.
Among the highlighted loans are Millet’s 'The Gleaners', Van Gogh’s 'Starry Night' and Gauguin’s 'Arearea'. The site notes that several of these works are returning to Japan after long intervals, including 'The Gleaners', which is said to be arriving in Japan for the first time in 23 years, and 'Starry Night', which is described as returning after 16 years. The online materials also show additional Orsay holdings associated with the exhibition, such as Renoir’s 'Bathers', Maurice Denis’s 'The Ker-Xavier Roussel Family', Louis Anquetin’s 'Henri Samary', Émile Gallé’s vase 'Flower Vase in the Shape of a Flask' and Paul Signac’s 'Avignon, Sunset (The Pope’s Palace)'.
The Tokyo museum says French scenographer Cécile Degot, who has worked with the Musée d'Orsay, will design the exhibition space. Promotional materials emphasize an atmosphere intended to carry visitors through the show from the moment they enter until the end of the visit, with the aim of creating a bright and buoyant setting for the Orsay loans.
Ticket information published for the exhibition lists standard admission at 2,400 yen on the day and 2,200 yen in advance, with reduced prices for university and vocational school students and for visitors aged 65 and older. Admission is free for those 18 and under, for high school students and younger, and for several categories of disability certificate holders and one accompanying caregiver. The museum also lists special free admission for university and vocational school students on weekdays from December 8 to 18.
Advance sales for general tickets are scheduled from September 28 to November 13, 2026. The exhibition is also offering an early-bird paired ticket priced at 4,000 yen for two general-admission entries, with sales running from July 27 to September 27 and use valid for visits from November 14, 2026, to January 29, 2027. The exhibition will run at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum in Ueno through March 28, 2027.
