The Art of Paris: Monet’s Water Lilies at the Musée de l’Orangerie

The third art museum in The Art of Paris series is least known of the four museums we visited during our visit to Paris. Inside an old converted green house, the Musée de l’Orangerie offers Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces with less crowds.

While not as popular as the Musée d’Orsay’s Impressionist collection, l’Orangerie includes significant works by numerous French painters.

However, the headliner of the gallery is Claude Monet.

Rebekah at the Musée de l’Orangerie

Two oval rooms wonderfully display the highlight of the gallery, Monet’s Les Nymphéas (Water Lilies). Each room holds four curved canvases, encircling you in Monet’s gardens at Giverny. Rebekah and I were forced to stop, sit down, and take in the stunning scenes. If you can, view these works without large crowds. These two rooms offer a lovely place to sit, rest and contemplate the beauty around you. For a sample of this amazing work, click here for a virtual tour of these two room.

Monet creatively splashed colors on the canvases, somehow capturing the sensation of fleeting light throughout the day, from morning to sunset. When I looked at the works logically, they did not make sense to me. How were dawn and dusk shown on the same canvas? How can the viewer’s perspective of the pond change within a single piece, sometimes looking down on the pond, and other times looking at the ponds from the side? But looking at Les Nymphéas with the creative side of your brain, the paintings somehow transition seamlessly into a masterpiece.

Even if you are short on time, we recommend a quick visit Musée de l’Orangerie just to see Les Nymphéas. This series of paintings was one of Monet’s final works, a wonderful legacy.

Detail of André Derain’s Arlequin et Pierrot – 1924

While Monet is the headliner, other artists grab your attention in the lower level gallery. Works from Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, Alfred Sisley, Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse add to the impressiveness of the museum. I particularly liked the works of French artists Maurice Utrillo and André Derain. I was not familiar with their works prior to seeing multiple pieces in l’Orangerie, a great introduction.

All of these works once belonged to Paul Guillaume, a Parisian art dealer and friend to many of the Impressionists. Thankfully, the collection of Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume is accessible to the public in this intimate setting.

Conveniently located in the Tuileries Gardens of the Louvre, the Musée de l’Orangerie originally housed orange trees for King Louis XIV. The structure has been modified many times, with the most recent renovation completed in 2006. The added skylights filter natural light onto Monet’s Water Lilies, emphasizing the beauty of light Monet sought to capture in his works.

Model of the Converted Green House

Photography is not permitted in Les Nymphéas, but is allowed in the other galleries.

Admission is included in the Paris Pass and the Paris Museum Pass, or can be purchased individually for 9€. Note that there are two lines outside the building, one for general admission and the second for Pass holders. The Passes will allow you to bypass the ticket line, but not the line to enter and go through bag check.

Gallery in the Musée de l’Orangerie

Musée de l’Orangerie is closed on Tuesdays, and is more crowded on Mondays since the nearby Musée d’Orsay is closed.