Laurence des Cars is an anomaly in the male-dominated world of French museums. Since March 2017, she has been running the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, with its envied collection of French 19th-century masterpieces, and the Musée de l’Orangerie across the river, for which Claude Monet produced a celebrated series of water lilies.

Ms. des Cars was a strong contender for the job. To begin with, she was already partly doing it — leading the Orangerie as of 2014.

Before that, she had spent seven years in the Persian Gulf emirate of Abu Dhabi, helping set up the Louvre’s first international outpost there and exercising her skill at cultural diplomacy.

Finally, the Musée d’Orsay was emerging from a period of commotion. As Philippe Dagen, the art critic of Le Monde, wrote when her appointment was announced, “Her job will be to bring about more serenity after years marked by the very personal — and sometimes internally disputed — management style of her predecessor, Guy Cogeval.”