(Fig. 1) Arcimboldo, Winter, 1563, 66.6x50.5 cm, Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna collection. (Fig. 2) Fragonard, Reading, c. 1770, 81x65 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington DC collection. (Fig. 3) Courbet, Leisure by the Seine, 1856, 174x206 cm, Petit Palais Museum Paris collection. (Fig. 4) Hodler, Euryhmie, 1895, 167x245 cm, Kunstmuseum Bern Switzerland collection.

Summer has just passed, and all cultural activities in Paris are now taking place one after another, kicking off the capital’s major events for the second half of the year. The Luxembourg Museum presents the most innovative Italian Mannerist master Arcimboldo from September 15 to January 13 next year. The Jacquemart-Andre Museum exhibits works by France’s most poetic Rococo master Fragonard from October 3 to January 13 next year. The Grand Palais holds a grand retrospective of French Realist master Gustave Courbet from October 10 to January 28 next year, and displays "Design Against Design," a two-century design exhibition, from September 26 to January 8 next year. Additionally, the Grand Palais hosts its annual FIAC International Contemporary Art Fair Special Exhibition (October 18–22).

From October, the Louvre exhibits a special show by Germany’s most famous contemporary artist Anselm Kiefer, and from October 5 to January 7 next year, a special exhibition on Safavide Iranian decorative art. The Villette Market Exhibition Hall north of Paris holds the grand "Animals and Humans" special exhibition from September 15. The Music Museum at Cité de la Musique exhibits a special show on German Romantic master Richard Wagner from October 25 to January 20 next year. The Musée d'Orsay exhibits Symbolist Ferdinand Hodler from November 13 to February 3 next year; Jeu de Paume holds Edward Steichen’s grand retrospective from October 9 to December 30; the Picasso Museum holds a special exhibition on Picasso’s Cubism from September 19 to January 7 next year; and the Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine opens for European Heritage Days this weekend on September 15 and 16.

Another new artistic and technological experimental field in the art capital—Laboratoire (on Bouloi Street in the 1st arrondissement)—will officially open on October 19, bringing an unprecedented scene to contemporary Parisian art. The evenings of October 6 and 7 mark Paris’s annual "White Night" (Nuit blanche). Additionally, visual arts specials for the Paris Autumn Carnival, as well as new exhibitions at Centre Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo, and the Paris Municipal Modern Art Museum, will appear successively. All Paris galleries also launch their activities starting September 8. Paris Photo and Photo Qui exhibit from mid-October to late November, and modern and contemporary Parisian art reaches its climax at the international art exhibition in mid-October.