Paris has many distinct periods of history, but one of the most beautiful is the Belle Époque, a period of history of new wealth, ideas, and innovation. Think airplanes, cars, Eiffel Tower, and…Impressionist art.
This new art form broke from earlier tradition with its light, visible brushstrokes, focus on light and color, and portrayal of everyday contemporary life.
Artists later moved away from Impressionist art, moving towards Post-Impressionism, which was characterized by thickly applied paint or small dotted application of paint, vivid colors, and symbolic content.
The best place to find Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art? The Musée d’Orsay in Paris.
While you can spend literally hours at the museum admiring the works of the hundreds of artists, here is a list of the best things to see at the Musée d’Orsay!
Table of Contents
History of the Musée d’Orsay
It’s not just the impressive art that’s worth seeing at the Musée d’Orsay. The building itself is unusual.
The building that now houses the Musée d’Orsay began life as a train station. Completed in around 1900 and known as the Gare d’Orsay, it served as the terminus of the railways of southwestern France until 1939.
By 1970, the Gare d’Orsay was no longer in use and was scheduled to be torn down. The building was added to the list of Historic Monuments in 1978 but there remained a question about what to do with it.
It was decided that the space would be turned into a museum, filling a place between the Old Masters of the Louvre and the modern art of the Pompidou Centre.
The Musée d’Orsay, home of Impressionist art, was born. The museum opened to the public in 1986.
Best things to see at the Musée d’Orsay
On the ground floor, you’ll find:
Liberty by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi (circa 1889)
I lived in NYC for a long time, so I’d be remiss if I didn’t add this smaller-scale rendering of the iconic Statue of Liberty.
The artist, Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, created a 1/16 scale model of his famous statue for the 1900 Paris Exposition. For years located in the Jardin du Luxembourg, it was transferred to the Musée d’Orsay in 2012 where it greets visitors at the entrance to the main hall.
Of course, if you get the chance, you should definitely go see the one in New York City.
The Besieged City of Paris Entrusts its Appeal to France to the Air, also known as The Balloon by Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1870)
In 1870, when this picture was painted, France was at war with Prussia. The dull, muted colors capture the despairing and sober mood of Paris, which at the time was under siege from the enemy. A woman, dressed in black, holds a rifle.
But what really strikes me about this painting is the object the woman is waving to: a balloon.
Balloons were used during the siege of Paris to transport letters and people in and out of the besieged city. It marked the beginning of air mail and commercial aviation.
Reception of Le Grand Condé at Versailles by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1878)
Gérôme painted in the academic style, which was the predominant art form from about the 16th to the 19th century. Ironically, given that a few of his paintings are now at the Musée d’Orsay, he was an opponent of Impressionism.
For anyone also visiting Versailles, this painting depicts an imagined Ambassador’s Staircase, which was used by King Louis XVI to host foreign dignitaries, but which was destroyed during a renovation of the palace complex in 1752.
The Prince Imperial and Nero the Dog by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux (1865)
I’m a sucker for any art that depicts the bond between humans and their dogs, and this statue of Napoleon, Prince Imperial with his dog Nero is absolutely charming. It was popularly reproduced by one of the leading French porcelain factories, Sèvres.
After the fall of the Second Empire in 1870, the Prince Imperial went with his family into exile in England. He was killed during the Zulu War in South Africa at the age of 23 and buried in Farnborough, England.
Whistler’s Mother by James McNeill Whistler (1871)
Officially known as Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1, this picture by James McNeill Whistler is, as its colloquial name would imply, a portrait of his mother, who sat for the artist after the original model failed to show up.
I was excited to see this picture thanks to its place in American consciousness, but was surprised when I found myself the only person who seemed to feel this way. Placed in a quiet corridor in the museum, the few people who did pass by didn’t even bother to glance it. Hopefully you won’t make the same mistake!
The Artist’s Studio by Gustave Courbet (1855)
Originally intended to be exhibited at the 1855 Paris Exposition, this massive (and I mean, massive) painting was instead first displayed by Courbet as his own rival solo exhibition instead.
What I like most about this work is that it shows Courbet’s mastery in a wide variety of genres. You’ll find nudes, animals, portraits (of his friends and himself), landscapes, and still lifes.
Olympia by Édouard Manet (1863)
Olympia may look like it’s in the same tradition as classical nudes, but she’s anything but. Self-assured, boldly gazing at the viewer, she’s a prostitute who doesn’t give a care about what the viewer thinks. And that was part of the reason the painting caused a stir when it was first exhibit at the Paris Salon.
Critics were taken aback by both the technical elements and the subject matter. The bold brushstrokes, flatness, and even the yellowish “cadaverous” color of the subject’s skin were a departure from the clean lines and soft colors of earlier eras. The highly sexualized symbolism – the cat, the orchid, and even her servant – differed from the bashful, idealized nudes of the time.
Manet’s new style of painting would become an inspiration for the Impressionists that followed.
The Gleaners by Jean-François Millet (1857)
Millet is largely categorized as part of the Realism movement, which emerged in the 1840s and depicted contemporary life with accuracy over the sentimentality of the earlier Romantic movement.
The Gleaners is a prime example of Realism. Three peasant women are hunched over, performing painstaking manually labor. Millet treats his subjects sympathetically without idealism the harshness of their condition.
Millet’s contemporaries, however, were not so sympathetic and the painting was poorly received. It has since become one of Millet’s most famous works.
On the 2nd floor (3rd floor for us North Americans), you’ll find:
The Luncheon on the Grass (Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe) by Édouard Manet (1863)
Like Olympia, Manet’s Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe caused quite the stir for the bold, modern twist on previously accepted subjects. The scene shows a nude woman with two males, but what upset critics at the time was the contemporary setting. There were also the technical issues of the bold brushstrokes and lack of perception in the background landscape.
Rejected from the Salon, Manet instead exhibited the painting at the Salon des Refusés – which proved to be even more popular than the Salon itself that year.
Rouen Cathedrals by Claude Monet(1892 – 1893)
While the Musée d’Orsay has some 86 paintings by the Impressionist painter extraordinaire, Claude Monet, among my favorites are his series of Rouen Cathedral (which is probably helped by the fact that I have visited Rouen Cathedral and loved it).
Impressionism as an artistic movement placed particular emphasis on light and its effects, and this is highly evident in this set of paintings which shows Rouen Cathedral at different times of day and at different seasons of the year.
Though the Musée d’Orsay only has about four paintings from the series, they’re appropriately displayed side by side so you can see all at once the changing effect of light.
Bal du moulin de la Galette by Pierre-August Renoir (1876)
This popular work by Impressionist artist Pierre-August Renoir shows a typical Sunday at the Moulin de La Galette, a restaurant in Paris’ Montmartre neighborhood. (You can still enjoy a meal at the reconstructed restaurant.) Paris’ working class would come here to drink, dance, and forget momentarily about the cares of everyday life.
Bal du moulin de la Galette is typical Renoir style – light and airy, capturing the fleeting moment on canvas as the Impressionists were so adept at doing. Renoir himself did not use black or brown in his paintings, finding those colors too depressing. As a result, despite the generous use of blue, the work still has a lighthearted and happy quality to it.
The Dance Class by Edgar Degas (c. 1871 – 1876)
While Degas might arguably have more intriguing artwork at the museum, among them the L’Absinthe, I quite like this somewhat charming painting of ballerinas and their dance teacher. Ballet dancers were among Degas’ favorite subjects and he painted and sculpted several pieces devoted to them, partly because they were a good source of income.
The paintings depicts real-life Ballet Master Jules Perrot, who at one point was the Ballet Master of the Imperial Ballet in St. Petersburg, Russia, one of the foremost ballet companies in the world. Among the ballets he created were Pas de Quatre, Ondine, La Esmeralda, and Giselle with Jean Coralli.
Self-Portrait by Vincent van Gogh (1889)
Perhaps the best-known portrait of van Gogh was this one, painted a few months before his death, while he was staying at a psychiatric hospital. Despite writing to his brother that he was “calmer,” the swirling blue background would suggest he still suffered from inner turmoil.
Van Gogh painted several self-portraits during his career. Having sold only a single painting during his lifetime, he often lacked money for to pay for models.
Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh (1888)
If you want to see any of the 24 paintings by van Gogh at the Musée d’Orsay, be prepared to fight the crowds; and the Starry Night was among the most difficult to approach.
It was painted during the artist’s stay at Arles in southern France, where van Gogh had gone to create an artistic commune. In the end, only Paul Gaugin joined him – and left after two months after they found their personalities clashed.
Personally, I prefer the version van Gogh painted a few months later, also called The Starry Night; this later version is at the MoMA in New York.
The Card Players by Paul Cézanne (1894-1895)
Paul Cézanne was a post-Impressionist painter whose works are considered by art historians to bridge the gap between Impressionism and Cubism.
He painted a series of pictures on the subject of men playing cards. This motif was popular in the 17th centuries, which often depicted rowdy games. In Cézanne’s versions, there is instead a quiet dignity, with the men, modelled by local farmhands, intensely focused on the game.
Arearea by Paul Gaugin (1892)
Paul Gaugin’s early work was painted in the Impressionist style, but things changed drastically when he visited Tahiti, at the time a French colony, in the south Pacific.
From then on, Gaugin painted in bright colors and bold outlines. To him, Tahiti was paradise – he eventually moved there permanently, never to return to Europe – and Arearea was one of his favorite works.
La toilette by Henri Toulouse-Lautrec (1889)
Perhaps no other artist captures the underworld of the Belle Époque quite like Henri Toulouse-Lautrec. Expelled from the aristocratic circles to which he belonged by birth due to his deformed appearance, he found both solace and inspiration among the brothels and bohemian haunts of late 19th century Paris.
La toilette is one of several paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec at the Musée d’Orsay, and perhaps the best-known.
The Circus by Georges Seurat (1890-1891)
I’ve always been impressed by the patience that must have been exhibited by Seurat in his particular style of Neo-Impressionism. He painted in a style called Pointillism, in which small dots are added individually to a canvas to create a picture.
The Circus was the artist’s last work; it was unfinished at his death. Using the pointillist technique he was famous for, the painting’s three most prominent colors are the primary colors of red, yellow, and blue.
The Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin (late 19th century)
This gigantic sculpture was inspired by Dante’s Inferno and stands 6 meters high and 4 meters wide. The Thinker can be seen towards the top. Several casts were made in bronze and can be found all over the world, but the original plaster model is what you’ll see at the Musée d’Orsay.
If you like Rodin’s works, don’t forget to add the Musée Rodin, not too far from the Musée d’Orsay itself, to your visit. There, you’ll find a bronze cast of The Gates of Hell and a large version of The Thinker.
How to visit the Musée d’Orsay
General advice
I visited the Musée d’Orsay on a Sunday afternoon and it was crowded. Like, crowded.
This not only means that you have to contend with crowds in the museum itself, but the lines for tickets can be painfully long. I waited about 45 minutes in line for tickets, and that was during low season!
For this reason, I recommend booking tickets in advance.
Opening times
Monday: Closed
Tuesday and Wednesday: 9:30am – 6:00pm
Thursday: 9:30am – 9:45pm
Friday to Sunday: 9:30am – 6:00pm
Ticket prices
General admission (online): €16
General admission (onsite): €14
For a full list of current prices, be sure to check the official website.
*Free on the first Sunday of the month (reservation required)
Location
Esplanade Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, 75007 Paris, France
How to arrive via public transport
By Metro: Line 12, Solférino station
By RER: Line C, Musée d’Orsay station
By bus: 63, 68, 69, 73, 83, 84, 87, 94
Time to spend
Depends on how much you want to see. Here are my recommendations:
General visit: 2-3 hours
Short on time: 1 hour, focusing on the Impressionist paintings
Audio guides and Guided tours
Audio guides for the permanent collection are available. Either pick up the audio guide onsite, or download to your phone. Prices are:
Adult: €6
Children (6-12): €3.50
Guided tours of the permanent collection are also offered. Be sure to check the website for details.
Beyond the Musée d’Orsay
Still haven’t gotten your fill of Impressionist art? Head across the Seine River to the Musée de l’Orangerie, where, among other works, you can find eight large murals of the Water Lilies by Monet.
There you have it! A few of the most outstanding pieces from the Musée d’Orsay. Of course, there are many, many more items to be admired that I could mention here. What pieces are your favorites?
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