Musée d'Orsay \ Museum of Orsay.

The Musée d'Orsay is a museum of Paris, located on the left bank of the Seine, located in the former railway station - Gare d'Orsay.
And before that, the Court of Accounts, which was destroyed in the times of the Paris Commune, was located here.
In 1898, the Paris-Orleans Railway Company received the architect D'Orsay from the architect Victor Lalou.
The work moved very fast and the new station was ready in time for the opening of the World Exhibition in 1900.

Basically, the museum is dedicated to the French art of 1848 - 1915, represented by paintings, sculptures, furniture and photographs, and is best known for its considerable collection of masterpieces by such Impressionists as Monet, Degas, Renoir and Cezanne.
Before the opening of the Museum in 1986, many of these works were kept in the National Ball Game Gallery (Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume).




Lalu built a huge central nave 135x40 meters, the metal structure of which was skillfully covered from the outside by imitation of marble of light tones.
The station accommodated not only 16 platforms, but also restaurants and a hotel with 400 rooms.
The station's lobby was so luxurious that one artist, as if foreseeing the future, called Orsa "the palace of the arts."
Even the restaurant here looks like a work of art.

Since 1939, the station d'Orsay was abandoned and was experiencing a period of prolonged decline, threatening its demolition, despite repeated attempts to save it.



In 1973, President Pompidou declared the station a national monument and decided to create a museum, which was not yet in Paris - a museum that accommodates half a century of art: from the time of the Second Empire to the beginning of Cubism.
The ideal link between the Louvre - the temple of classical art and the Pompidou Center - the temple of modern art.
Work on the conversion of the station, which began in 1978, was entrusted to the ACT group, and interior decoration - the architect-woman from Italy Gae Aulenti.
Currently, the museum on an area of ​​more than 45 thousand square meters exhibited more than 4 thousand works of art, including painting, sculpture, graphics, furniture.

The Museum of Orsay is one of the most pleasant museums in Paris.
Unlike the neighboring Louvre (shared only by the Seine) there is never a crush and crowds of frantic tourists. Quiet, spacious, light.
The huge building of the old railway station was the ideal house for paintings by French impressionists.
Sunlight, falling through the glass dome of Orsay, enhances the radiance of the already shining paintings of Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Degas, Gauguin, Renoir and another three dozen outstanding impressionists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

The collection of the Museum of Orsay includes not only paintings, but also photographs, sculptures, furniture.





Magnificent main clocks made during the station's stay here, and now decorate the museum.