Art museum paris train station

Art museum in Paris, France

This article is about the museum. For other uses, see D'Orsay (disambiguation).

The Musée d'Orsay (MEW-zay dor-SAY, mew-ZAY -⁠, French:[myzedɔʁsɛ]) (English: Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It houses the largest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces in the world, by painters including Berthe Morisot, Claude Monet, Édouard Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, Seurat, Sisley, Gauguin, and van Gogh. Many of these works were held at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume prior to the museum's opening in 1986. It is one of the largest art museums in Europe.

In 2022 the museum had 3.2 million visitors, up from 1.4 million in 2021. It was the sixth-most-visited art museum in the world in 2022, and second-most-visited art museum in France, after the Louvre.

History

The museum building was originally a railway station, Gare d'Orsay, located next to the Seine river. Built on the site of the Palais d'Orsay, its central location was convenient for commuting travelers. The station was constructed for the Chemin de Fer de Paris à Orléans and finished in time for the 1900 Exposition Universelle to the design of three architects: Lucien Magne, Émile Bénard and Victor Laloux. The Gare d'Orsay design was considered to be an "anachronism". Since trains were such a modern innovation for the time architects and designers alike expected a building that would embody the modern traits of this new mode of transportation. Gare d'Orsay instead gained inspiration from the past for the concept of the facade to the point of masking the cutting-edge technology within. It was the terminus

The Musée d’Orsay is located on the left bank of the Seine, housed in the former Gare d’Orsay, a railway station built between 1898 and 1900.

“The station is superb and looks like a Palais des beaux-arts…” wrote the painter Edouard Detaille in 1900. Eighty-six years later, his prophecy was fulfilled.

The Orsay Museum was once a train station

The railway station was built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900. Effectively the building is itself the first “work of art” in the Musée d’Orsay. It was designed by architect Victor Laloux and building work took two years. The station’s exterior is clad in white limestone to match the buildings of this prestigious neighbourhood and nearby Louvre palace.

It had been a busy station from it’s opening until 1939 when the short platforms no longer suited the longer trains that were being made. It was also used for filming (notably Orson Welles’ production of The Trial) and as a meeting place. General de Gaulle held a press conference announcing his return to power here.

The station was considered for destruction to make way for a modern hotel complex. Fortunately that decision was halted when the station achieved Historical Monument status. The French Government decided instead to transform the station into a museum.

The architects chosen for the job were ACT group including Jean-Paul Philippon who was also responsible for the conversion of an art deco swimming pool in Roubaix into a stunning art gallery known as La Piscine. The design for the museum incorporated the best of the station’s features – the great hall, the glass awning and the station clock. It opened in 1986.

What to see at the Musee d’Orsay

The museum has one of the most stunning collections of art, ranging from the late 19th century to the early 20th century. The museum started forming its collection in 1986 from works of art from three different museums – the Louvre, M

Visit the museum in the old Paris train station: Musée d'Orsay tickets

Visit the Orsay Museum in Paris France, a world-renowned gallery housed in a historic railway station and explore 19th-century sculptures and decorative arts. Info about entry tickets, opening hours and tours in Musée d'Orsay.

Visit Musée d'Orsay in Paris

The Musée d'Orsay is a well-known art museum in Paris. It is located in the 7th district, directly on the banks of the Seine river, close to the Louvre Museum. The museum’s collection includes artwork by prominent artists like Degas, Monet, Picasso, Renoir, Rodin, and Van Gogh. All the pieces in Musée d’Orsay were created between 1848 and 1914. Musée d'Orsay is one of France’s largest art museums. Its collection is ordered chronologically, beginning with realism and ending with post-impressionism. The use of a photo or video camera is not permitted inside the museum.

History of the Orsay Museu

How L’Origine du Monde came to be hung in the Gare d’Orsay

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Anyone who’s visited Paris no doubt will have admired the building, if not been inside to take in all the majestic art inside. Right in the heart of the French capital, overlooking the Seine, stands the Musée d’Orsay, just over the river from the extraordinary Tuileries Gardens. Its collections hold some of the world’s greatest works of art, not least ‘Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe’, ‘L’Origine du Monde’ and ‘Le Bal du Moulin de la Galette’.

It’s such a fixture of the Parisian tourist circuit that it’s easy to forget that it’s only actually been a museum since 1986. Because before that, for some decades, the building was a train station: today we’ll be telling you all about its remarkable transformation.

The prime location had given Napoleon ideas. In 1810, he founded the French empire’s cavalry barracks on this site, along with the Palais d’Orsay. This regal building first housed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and would later be home to the Council of State and the Court of Auditors– until the Paris Commune put paid to that. During the night of May 23, the insurgents set fire to the building. Emile Zola tells the story best in La Débâcle:

‘The immense fire, unprecedented, terrifying, engulfed the entire place, the two floors vomiting flames. The four buildings surrounding the interior courtyard were set alight at the same time; petrol streamed down the stairwells, cascading violently down as if marching straight to hell.’

What was left was a wreck of a building, which stood overlooking the Seine for several decades. But as Paris was preparing to welcome the Universal Exposition in 1900, the private Paris-Orléans rail company revived the building once more. This international event was to draw visitors from far and wide, and so this firm saw an opportunity to make this historic building the jewel in its railway-network crown.

Victor Laloux was the