Art Museum sights in Paris
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Musée du Louvre
The vast Palais du Louvre was constructed as a fortress by Philippe-Auguste in the early 13th century and rebuilt in the mid-16th century for use as a royal residence. In 1793 the Revolutionary Convention turned it into the nation’s first national museum.
The paintings, sculptures and artefacts on display in the Louvre Museum have been assembled by French governments over the past five centuries. Among them are works of art and artisanship from all over Europe and important collections of Assyrian, Etruscan, Greek, Coptic and Islamic art and antiquities. Traditionally the Louvre’s raison d’être is to present Western art from the Middle Ages to about the year 1848 (at wh…
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B
Musée d’Orsay
Facing the Seine from quai Anatole France, the Musée d’Orsay is housed in a former train station (1900). It displays France’s national collection of paintings, sculptures, objets d’art and other works produced between the 1840s and 1914, including the fruits of the Impressionist, post-Impressionist and art nouveau movements.
Many visitors to the museum go straight to the upper level (lit by a skylight) to see the famous Impressionist paintings by Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Sisley, Degas and Manet and the post-Impressionist works by Cézanne, Van Gogh, Seurat and Matisse, but there’s also lots to see on the ground floor, including some early works by Manet, Monet, Reno…
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C
Musée de l'Orangerie
Located in the southwestern corner of the Jardin des Tuileries, this museum, with the Jeu de Paume, is all that remains of the once palatial Palais des Tuileries, which was razed during the Paris Commune in 1871. It exhibits important Impressionist works, including a series of Monet's Decorations des Nymphéas (Water Lilies) in two huge oval rooms purpose-built in 1927 on the artist's instructions, as well as works by Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Renoir, Sisley, Soutine and Utrillo. An audioguide costs €5.
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D
Musée Picasso
One of Paris’ best-loved art museums, the Musée Picasso, housed in the mid-17th-century Hôtel Salé, includes more than 3500 of the grand maître’s engravings, paintings, ceramic works, drawings and sculptures. You can also see part of Picasso’s personal art collection, which includes works by Braque, Cézanne, Matisse, Modigliani, Degas and Rousseau. It will reopen after extensive renovations in 2012.
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Musée du Quai Branly
The architecturally impressive but unimaginatively named Quai Branly Museum introduces the art and cultures of Africa, Oceania, Asia and the Americas through innovative displays, film and musical recordings. With Là où dialoguent les cultures (Where cultures communicate) as its motto, the museum is one of the most dynamic and forward-thinking in the world. The anthropological explanations are kept to a minimum; what is displayed here is meant to be viewed as art. A day pass allowing entry to the temporary exhibits as well as the permanent collection costs adult/concession €10/7; an audioguide is €5. Don’t miss the views from the 5th-floor restaurant Les Ombres.
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Musée Guimet des Arts Asiatiques
France’s foremost repository for Asian art, the Guimet Museum of Asian Art has sculptures, paintings, objets d’art and religious articles from Afghanistan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Tibet, Cambodia, China, Japan and Korea. Part of the original collection – Buddhist paintings and sculptures brought to Paris in 1876 by collector Émile Guimet – is housed in the Galeries du Panthéon Bouddhique du Japon et de la Chine in the sumptuous Hôtel Heidelbach. Don’t miss its wonderful Japanese garden.
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Musée de Montmartre
One-time home to painters Renoir, Utrillo and Raoul Dufy, the Musée de Montmartre displays paintings, lithographs and documents, mostly relating to the area’s rebellious and bohemian/artistic past, in a 17th-century manor house, which is the oldest structure in the quarter. It also stages exhibitions of artists still living in the quartier. There’s an excellent bookshop here that also sells bottles of the wine produced from grapes grown in the Clos Montmartre, a small vineyard in the Montmartre area.
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H
Musée de l’Érotisme
The Museum of Erotic Art tries to put some 2000 titillating statues and stimulating sexual aids and fetishist items from days gone by on a loftier plane, with erotic art – both antique and modern – from four continents spread over seven floors. But most of the punters know why they are here.
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Atelier Brancusi
West of the Centre Pompidou main building, this reconstruction of the studio of Romanian-born sculptor Constantin Brancusi (1876–1957) designed by Renzo Piano contains some 160 examples of the sculptor’s work.
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