James McNeil Whistler’s art draws upon the aestheticism of the American Gilded Age and engages with the realism of artists such as Courbet and Manet, whose ideas he was exposed to during his studies in Paris. Now, the Musée d’Orsay places its renowned Whistler—Arrangement in Grey and Black No 1: Portrait of the Artist’s Mother—in dialogue with four paintings, three pastels, and 12 sketches from the Frick Collection of New York. Whistler was interested in subtle, almost musical harmonies, and this exhibition shows the correspondence between tones of color and sound, and also between French and American urbanity. —Sonya Ribner