The Musée d'Orsay's first exhibition devoted to the spectacular development of the illustrated poster in colour in the late nineteenth century.

Including a unique set of works by the masters of poster art, the display shows how this medium was elevated "to the rank of mural painting", as the Nancy art critic Roger Marx once put it. This dive into the golden age of the illustrated poster also focuses on the rise of mass consumption and mass culture, of which poster art was both a vector and a symptom. Drawings, works of art, photographs and paintings all evoke the effervescent world of the street as a stage during the Belle Époque, whose image was in part shaped by these posters.

On show from 18 March to 6 July 2025, the exhibition "Art Is in the Street" is organised in collaboration with the Bibliothèque nationale de France. It is co-curated by Élise Dubreuil, Chief Curator of Decorative Arts at Musée d'Orsay, and Sandrine Maillet, in charge of poster collections at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, as well as Anne-Marie Sauvage, general library curator, and Clémence Raynaud, Chief Curator of Architecture at Musée d'Orsay.