Musée d’Orsay
Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces in a Beaux-Arts railway station on the Seine.
The Musée d'Orsay fills a grand Beaux-Arts railway station on the Left Bank of the Seine, built for the 1900 World's Fair and turned into a museum that opened in 1986. Visitors walk through the old station hall under its huge glass-and-iron vault, and the big station clocks still look out over the river.
The collection covers Western art from 1848 to 1914. It holds the world's largest group of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings, including major works by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Cézanne, Van Gogh and Gauguin, alongside sculpture, decorative arts, photography and architectural drawings. In 2026 the museum marks its 40th anniversary, and work on its reception areas is planned to continue until summer 2028 while the museum stays open.
Highlights
- Manet's Olympia and Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe
- Van Gogh's Starry Night over the Rhône and Bedroom in Arles
- Renoir's Bal du moulin de la Galette
- The station clock windows overlooking the Seine
