Musée d'Orsay

art museum in Paris, France

The Musée d'Orsay is an art museum in Paris. The building was built in 1900 and was first used as a railway station. In 1986, it became a museum, and it is still very famous today.

Musée d'Orsay Clock, Victor Laloux, Main Hall

The museum exhibits artworks of the 19th century including Impressionist paintings. The Impressionist paintings include works by Monet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Manet, and Van Gogh. That's why the Orsay is called the 'Impressionism museum'.

The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. Its extensive collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces is the largest in the world. It features work by such painters such as Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin, Van Gogh and many others.

Orsay Museum, seen from the right bank of the Seine river

Collection change

 
Vincent van Gogh:
Starry Night Over the Rhone
Arles, September 1888
 
Pierre-Auguste Renoir:
Bal du moulin de la Galette, 1876
 
Édouard Manet
The Luncheon on the Grass
1862-3
 
Paul Cézanne:
Card Players 1894-1895
 
Paul Cézanne:
Apples and Oranges
circa 1899

Paintings: major painters and works represented change