Musée d'Orsay

The Musée d’Orsay is an art gallery dedicated to French Impressionist and post-Impressionist art, located in the Gare d’Orsay, a train station that closed in 1939. The station was then used as a film set until the 1970s when it was almost demolished to make way for a hotel. The plans were stopped by the Minister for Cultural Affairs, and it was then converted into a museum that opened in 1986. The museum was conceived of as a bridge between the older artworks of the Louvre and the modern art in the Centre Georges Pompidou, predominantly featuring paintings and sculptures made between 1848 and 1914. Today the eye-catching museum receives over 3 million visitors per year, making it one of the most popular galleries in France.

The most famous paintings in the gallery are probably those by Vincent van Gogh, a collection which includes Starry Night over the Rhone, Bedroom in Arles, and a self-portrait among others. However, there are dozens of paintings by Impressionist and post-Impressionist masters, including Cézanne, Degas, Gauguin, Klimt, Manet, Monet, Matisse, Mondrian, Edvard Munch, Pissaro, Renoir, Seurat, and Whistler. The gallery is also home to several sculptures including works by Auguste Rodin, Paul Gauguin, Camille Claudel, and Honoré Daumier.

Impressionism is an art movement which originated among Paris-based artists in the 19th century, and which caused a stir among the academic and artistic establishment. The painters sought to capture things that were impossible with traditional painting techniques: the changing quality of light, the passage of time, and the quality of movement. Rather than aiming for realism, the artists used a range of interesting techniques, such as using short, unblended brush strokes or not waiting for one layer of paint to dry before beginning on the next, to create the impression of real-life in all its glory. Colors and their relationships with each other were also important to the Impressionists. Post-Impressionism was a response to Impressionism which arose between 1886 and 1905, with some artists rejecting the attempt to accurately capture natural light and colors. They often used similar painting techniques, but their paintings often contain more symbolism, brighter, almost unnatural colors, and geometric forms. The term post-Impressionist is less well-defined than Impressionism since the artists involved each responded to Impressionism in their own philosophical and stylistic ways.

The number of guided tours available at the Musée d’Orsay is limited, with an English language tour of the Masterpieces of the Musée d’Orsay running on only certain days of the week, a maximum of twice a day. Children under the age of 13 are also not allowed to join the tours. However, you can enjoy the art on display without a tour, since you won’t always need a lot of context to experience it the way the artist intended. Alternatively, you can pick up an audio guide for €5 which is available in French, German, English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese and Russian.

It depends on your level of interest in art. It’s possible to see the gallery’s highlights in less than two hours, but if you’re an art buff then you can easily spend a full day exploring all three floors. Guided tours take 90 minutes and after they’re over you’re free to go back to see any rooms that were skipped, or spend more time lingering with a favorite painting. The museum also contains two cafés and a restaurant, so you won’t be left hungry if you’re spending the whole day at the museum.