General Information

The Musée de l’Orangerie is an art gallery of impressionistic and post-impressionist paintings which includes masterpieces of some of the most prominent artists, such as Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso and Auguste Renoir, among others. The gallery, however, is most famous for eight Water Lilies murals by Claude Monet.

Collection and history: highlights

The museum is located on the bank of the Seine in the old orangery of the Tuileries Palace, near the Concorde metro station. It was chosen and arranged by Claude Monet himself to showcase his masterpieces.

Collection and history: explained

cycle of Monet’s water lily paintings, known as the ‘Nymphéas’, was arranged on the ground floor of the orangery in 1927. The eight paintings are displayed in two oval rooms all along the walls. Closed for renovation work since January 2000, completely restructured and reviewed, the museum was reopened to the public in May 2006. The Museum and the ‘Water Lilies’ paintings in particular were featured in Woody Allen’s 2011 film ‘Midnight in Paris’. Except for the paintings of Monet, Cézanne, Matisse, Modigliani, Picasso and Renoir, the gallery also includes the artworks of Henri Rousseau, Alfred Sisley, Chaim Soutine, and Maurice Utrillo.