MUSÉE D’ORSAY

The Musée d’Orsay is a museum located in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. It is located near the river Seine and faces the École des Beaux-Arts from across the bank. It has been a national museum since 1947.

The Musée d’Orsay is a national museum of French art established in 1986. It occupies the left wing of the Palais de l’Industrie, a building with an ornate Beaux-Arts style facade on the opposite side of the River Seine from La Défense.

The Musée d’Orsay was originally a railway station built in 1877 by Gustave Eiffel for Paris’s exclusive use. The structure was to serve as a demonstration that iron could be used safely for building projects. It had an impressive 300 metre long metal facade and was the longest single span building in Europe at that time.

The museum is so named because it once housed the collection of Victor Orsel, who donated his own works there in 1935. The Musée d’Orsay is one of the world’s best museums for French art since it contains a permanent collection that features many famous paintings that are usually seen in textbooks or on postcards.

It has fascinating paintings by Impressionist painters Claude Monet, Henri Degas, Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas and Pablo Picasso. The museum also has works by Vincent Van Gogh,  “A Sunday on La Grande Jatte” by Georges Seurat and many of Claude Monet’s works – including his famous “Water Lilies” series of paintings.

The Musée d’Orsay is one of the most popular museums in Paris because it hosts the largest collection of impressionist paintings. 

The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914, with some Italian paintings from before 1850.

It became well-known because it was one of the first museums to exhibit art from the impressionists movement. The museum was also among the first to display art from modern masters like Picasso and Matisse.

The Musée d’Orsay is open Tuesday through Friday from 9 am to 6 pm and Saturday and Sunday from 9 am to 7 pm. It closes on Mondays except for holidays like New Year’s Day or Christmas Day.