Musée de l'Orangerie
A bit of History

The Musée de l’Orangerie is located in the corner of the Tuileries Gardens next to the Place de la Concorde.

Dating back to 1852, the building was originally built to keep the orange trees from the gardens out of the cold during the winter. Before that, they would have been stored underneath the Grande Galerie at the Louvre. So that explains the Orangerie in the name.

The Orangerie is a bit like a greenhouse. Its southern facade, which faces the River Seine, is made of glass to let in the sun’s light and heat. Meanwhile, the opposite side along Rue de Rivoli is almost completely windowless to provide protection against the cold northern winds.

The main entrances on the west and east side of the Orangerie were ornately decorated by Louis Visconti, an architect known for his renovation work on the Louvre. The doors have pillars either side and triangular gables above them. In keeping with the building’s purpose, they are decorated with cornucopias, plants and ears of wheat.

After the Fall of the Empire in 1870 and the fire at Tuileries Palace in 1871, the Orangerie became the property of the state. Although it was still used to store orange trees, its uses were diversified as it became the setting for gardening, music and art events, banquets and dog shows. It was also used as a material store, barracks and even a sports hall.

It wasn’t until 1921 that the decision was made to devote the building entirely to the fine arts, starting with the plan to display Monet’s water lilies here. The murals weren’t finished by that point, but Monet had promised to give them to the state. The donation was made official in 1922.
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The museum wasn’t inaugurated until May 1927, a few months after Monet’s death. The eight huge murals making up the artist’s water lilies masterpiece have been on display in two oval rooms as the museum’s signature attraction ever since.

In 1930, the Orangerie was joined with the Louvre and four rooms in the half of the museum on the Place de la Concorde side were dedicated to temporary exhibitions in a novel move. After that, an incredible range of hugely successful exhibitions were organised every year, focusing on themes like impressionists, painters from the 17th century, Rubens, Degas and van Gogh. In 1946, museum visitors could admire masterpieces from private collections that had been recovered by the French Commission for Art Recovery and the Allies in Germany, the Monuments Men.

The Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume collections were acquired by the Musée de l’Orangerie in 1959 and 1963 respectively. Together, they later became known as the Walter-Guillaume collection. To accommodate these 144 new works of art, they had to add a suspended concrete ceiling to the building! It was at this time that the connection with the Louvre ended and the Orangerie became an independent museum in its own right.

The Orangerie was last renovated between 2000 and 2006. The rooms that had previously been constructed on two levels were removed, allowing the natural light to flood back into the two oval rooms where Monet’s water lilies are on display. Space was created in the basement for the Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume collection. The museum also welcomed temporary exhibition spaces, an auditorium, a seminar room and a book shop.

The museum has been linked to the Musée d’Orsay since May 2010.