France first

Oil painting The Gleaners by Francois Millet highlights the show.

"Musee d'Orsay has a very similar orientation to the China Museum of Art Shanghai as both have been focused on modern art since the 19th century," says Teng Junjie, director of Shanghai Municipal Administration of Culture, Radio, Film and TV.

Realism became a trend in the French artistic scene during the period between the mid-1800s to the start of World War I, according to Stephane Guegan, a curator from Musee d'Orsay.

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The countryside and farmers' lives were the most common subjects, reflecting artists' response to modernization and industrialization.

As the artistic trend developed from realism to naturalism, photography became influential for artists such as Jules Breton (1827-1906) and Jules-Alexander Muenier (1863-1942).

The latter was a photographer and among the most "tempted to compete with this new artistic technique," according to another curator of the show, Xavier Rey.

Shanghai Art Museum took over the China Pavilion and turned it into today's "China Art Palace".

Only recently did the museum announce its official English name as "China Art Museum Shanghai". The newly opened metro station on Line 8, 50 meters from the museum, is named after the museum.

Contact the writer at zhangkun@chinadaily.com.cn.