Impressionist art gallery · 1927 · Paris, France

Musée de l’Orangerie — Museum of the Orangerie

The Musée de l’Orangerie is an art gallery of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings in the west corner of the Tuileries Garden, beside the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The museum is world-famous as the permanent home of Claude Monet’s eight monumental Water Lilies murals, painted between 1914 and 1926 and installed in two specially designed oval rooms exactly as the artist intended.

At a glance

Type: Art gallery — Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting
Period: Building: 1852 (royal orangery); gallery opened 1927; renovated 2000–2006
Style: Second Empire architecture; interior renovated to Monet’s specifications
Location: Jardin des Tuileries, Place de la Concorde, 1st arrondissement, Paris, France
Coordinates: 48.8638° N, 2.3225° E

Overview

The Musée de l’Orangerie houses one of the most celebrated ensembles of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting in the world. Beyond the Monet Water Lilies, it holds the Walter-Guillaume collection featuring major works by Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Rousseau, Alfred Sisley, Chaïm Soutine, and Maurice Utrillo. The building itself was originally constructed in 1852 as a winter shelter for the orange trees of the Tuileries Garden.

History

Monet began the Water Lilies cycle in his garden at Giverny during the First World War and negotiated the donation of the panels to the French state in 1918, on the very day the Armistice was signed. The Orangerie was selected as their permanent home and its interior redesigned by architect Camille Lefèvre to the artist’s detailed specifications for natural overhead lighting. The rooms opened to the public on 16 May 1927, eight months after Monet’s death. A major renovation between 2000 and 2006 restored the original natural lighting and created underground galleries for the Walter-Guillaume collection.

What you see

The ground floor is devoted entirely to Monet’s eight Water Lilies panels, each measuring up to 91 metres in total combined length, displayed in two elliptical rooms lit by diffused natural light from above — precisely the contemplative, immersive environment Monet envisaged as his “Sistine Chapel.” The lower level contains the Walter-Guillaume collection, assembled by art dealer Paul Guillaume and his wife Domenica Walter, presenting approximately 144 works by Cézanne (including multiple Bathers canvases), Renoir, Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, and Soutine.

Cultural significance

Monet’s Water Lilies at the Orangerie are among the most influential works in the history of modern painting, inspiring Abstract Expressionism and the colour field painters of postwar America through their radical dissolution of horizon line and spatial depth. The museum offers a rare example of an artist’s complete monumental vision realised exactly as intended, in a purpose-built environment that has remained essentially unchanged since 1927.

Practical information

Address: Jardin des Tuileries, 75001 Paris, France
Hours: Check official website for current opening hours (musee-orangerie.fr)
Admission: Paid entry; combined tickets with other Paris museums available — check official website

Getting there

Metro lines 1 and 8/12 (Concorde station) place visitors at the entrance to the Tuileries Garden, a short walk from the museum. RER A stops at Châtelet–Les Halles, about fifteen minutes on foot. Bus lines 24, 42, 72, 73, 84, and 94 serve the Place de la Concorde. The Musée d’Orsay is about 15 minutes on foot along the Seine.

Sources & resources

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Museum of the Orangery