Situated adjacent to the Seine in the Jardin des Tuileries, not far from the Louvre, you’ll find a wonderful museum. It’s next to the Place de la Concorde and is housed in the palace’s old orange-tree growing greenhouse (orangery), a building completed in 1852.
The building is lovely, with some statues outside including the one below by Rodin, but it’s what’s inside that’s truly special.
The Orangerie museum is a 20th century art gallery and its best known pieces are a series of Monet water-lily paintings known as the Nymphéas which occupy much of the upper floor. Eight huge canvases of lilies are hung in two galleries, all painted by Monet when he was an old man beginning to lose his eyesight to cataracts. Monet painted these canvases at his home in Giverny and donated them to the French people. Monet knew exactly where these paintings would be situated and demanded their placement be as you see them today, in two spacious ovoid rooms under direct diffused light. The display opened in 1927, after Monet’s death, and you can still enjoy the exhibit as Monet intended you to.
The following image, courtesy Wikimedia, gives you a sense of how the paintings are presented and the wonderful light in one of the two rooms.
(Interior panorama of Musée de l’Orangerie courtesy Jason7825)
Photography within the museum is not allowed, but somehow I forgot to turn off the automatic timer on the camera draped around my neck and it snapped the following images of the Monet galleries. Even though many aren’t great, rather than delete them I thought I would share these with you. Like all photography of impressionist art, the images do not do justice to the genius that created these canvases.
The museum also houses an extensive collection of impressionist and post-impressionist works in its basement, including the extensive donated collection of Paul Guillaume. Some other artists whose work is featured are Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Rousseau, among others.
Well worth a few hours of your time when visiting the City of Lights!
Hi DrFumblefinger, Monet is my favorite impressionist artist and loved this museum. We actually had to go back to Paris 3 times to be able to visit It was closed for renovations when we were there in 1999, and 2001. It wasn’t until 2006 that we were able to see it. FINALLY. Happily I can say photography wasn’t prohibited then, so I was able to take the attached picture of us. It was truly amazing and your post brought back many wonderful memories. Thank you for sharing.
Actually, you’re both right…it just depends on when the visit was. French museums in recent years have shifted photography rules; at one time Musée d’Orsay and the Louvre were on opposite ends of the issue.
Eventually, in 2014, the Ministry of Culture and a group of museum officials worked out a charter that encourages visitors to respectfully take pictures in museums and monuments, but allows measures such as banning selfie sticks, or pictures on loan from owners or museums who refuse permission.
Orsay, and l’Orangerie, which is its dependent, held out on that for a while, but by March, 2015, they gave in—after a public shaming in which the Minister of Culture personally went to the museum and took pictures of paintings.
Our visit the the Orangerie a couple of months ago was almost a pilgrimage for me. I’ve long enjoyed the works of the Impressionists and post-Impressionists, but had a long-standing ‘bad relationship’ with most of the Nymphaeas, and the large ones there especially. But over the past few years, I’ve spent more time looking at them in exhibits and thinking about them, and now found myself looking forward to meeting the Orangerie exhibit again. And it was well worth it!