The Orsay Museum

The Orsay Museum (Musée d'Orsay) is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, an impressive Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. It is probably best known for its extensive collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces (the largest in the world) by such painters as Monet, 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.

Visiting the Orsay Museum

The Orsay Museum has several entrances, but only the main entrance, A at rue de la Légion d'Honneur, is for individual visitors with-out prebought tickets. The museum is very popular, so it is recommended to buy tickets in andvance. In that case you can use Entrance C for visitors with a ticket.
Entering the museum you will find three levels. On the ground floor a long central hall has connections to galleries on either side. The middle floor has terraces overlooking the central hall and galleries on either side. On the top floor, galleries covers the length of the building on the side towards the quai, and continues over the former hotel.
The museum was original formed with the national collections coming mainly from three other museums:
• from the Louvre museum, for the works of artists born after 1820.
• from the Musée du Jeu de Paume, for the works of impressionist artists.
• from the National Museum of Modern Art, that moved to the Centre Georges Pompidou in 1976 and only kept works of artists born after 1870.

The museum has collections that represents the following artistic disciplines:
• Painting collection
• Sculpture collection
• Objets d'art collection
• Photographic collection
• Graphic arts collection
• Architecture

Opening hours

The museum is open every day of the year (except Mondays)
• Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 9.30 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Thursdays extended opening hours from 9.30 a.m. to 9:45 p.m.
• January 1, May 1 and December 25 closed for holidays
Being one of the most popular attractions in Paris, prepare your visit well ahead by buying tickets in advance.

Address

Musée d'Orsay
1, rue de la Légion d'Honneur
75007 Paris
France

Getting there

By metro
Line no.12, metro station "Solférino"

By train
RER: line C, station "Musée d'Orsay"

By citybus RATP
Line 24, 63, 68, 69, 73, 83, 84, 94

By car
Parking garage Parking du carrousel du Louvre
Parking Bac Montalembert

By boat
Many tour boats stops at the Quai de Solférino on the seine river, close to the museum

History

The museum is housed in a former railway station and Hotel, the Gare d'Orsay, built for the World Fair of 1900. From 1900 to 1939 the railway station served as the main central station of Paris for the southwestern French railroad network. After 1939 the station became to small and served different purposes for many years.
In 1977 it was decided to convert the old railway station to a museum, and in 1986 the new Musée d'Orsay was inaugurated by President Francois Mitterrand.