New presentation of the collection

Les Arts à Paris
© Camille Gharbi

The collection of the Musée de l’Orangerie retraces certain unique facets of 20th century art, from the large-scale Water Lilies decoration by Claude Monet, the ultimate and founding masterpiece of abstraction and immersive works, to the painting collection of Paul Guillaume and Domenica Walter, characterized by the tension between modernity and figuration, from Renoir to Matisse, from Cézanne to Picasso, from Douanier Rousseau to Modigliani and Soutine.

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The new presentation of the Musée de l’Orangerie collection, in renovated spaces, creates a closer connection between the two parts of the collection – Water Lilies / École de Paris [School of Paris] in the early 20th century – with an elegant spatial and visual coherence within the building and a fluid, educational and stimulating visitor circuit. The visit begins with a striking entrance to the collection with a large polyptychs by Joan Mitchell (loan from the Musée national d’Art moderne) on the one hand, and large-scale works by the modern "primitives” - Picasso, Douanier Rousseau, Derain, Modigliani, Matisse, etc. on the other - based on the vision of the poet Guillaume Apollinaire. The monographic galleries offers the public a new, more up-close and comfortable perspective of the works.

The exceptional loan of a set of African and Oceanian sculptures, previously in the Paul Guillaume collection, by the Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, as well as several drawings and archives, enrich the tour. The two new galleries – one dedicated to close-ups of the collection (three per year) and the other to contemporary counterpoints to the Water Lilies – contribute to the dynamism and constant renewal of this prestigious collection.