Musée de l'Orangerie

The building was put up in 1852 by architect Firmin Bourgeois and later finished by Louis Visconti. It was built to shelter the orange trees in the Tuileries Garden. During France’s Third Republic, the building had many uses: it stored supplies, served as an examination room, and housed mobilized soldiers. It also held sports, music, and patriotic events, as well as shows featuring industry, animals, plants, and rare paintings.^[2]

As art historian Michel Hoog states: "In 1921, the Beaux-Arts administration decided to assign to the Directorate of National Museums (as it was then called) the two buildings facing the Place de la Concorde, the Jeu de Paume and the Orangerie, which had until then been used for its original purpose. The Orangerie became an annex of the Musée du Luxembourg, unanimously criticized for being too small, while the Jeu de Paume was to be used for temporary exhibitions and to house contemporary foreign painting."

Impressionist painter Claude Monet chose to give several large decorative panels to the French government as a tribute after World War I. His close friend, former prime minister Georges Clemenceau, advised him to place the paintings in the newly available Orangerie. This site offered more wall space than the Jeu de Paume museum and was easier than building a new wing at the Musée Rodin as earlier planned.^[3]

On April 12, 1922, Claude Monet signed a contract to donate a series of decorative panels ("Les Nymphéas"), painted on canvas, to the French government, to be housed in redesigned oval rooms in the Orangerie. With Monet's input, the Louvre's chief architect, Camille Lefèvre, drew up new plans in 1922 to house Monet's large "Nymphéas " paintings, incorporating natural light, plain walls, and interior decoration. According to Hoog's research, "funds were available on August 17, 1922, work began in October, and appears to have been completed in [the] following year." Unwilling to give up his last works of art, these paintings remained with Monet until his death on December 5, 1926. On January 31, 1927, the Laurent-Fournier company agreed to install and mount the panels, in a process that involved gluing the canvas directly to the walls. The paintings were in place on March 26 of that year. On May 17, 1927, Monet's " Les Nymphéas " opened to the public at the Musée de l'Orangerie.

According to Hoog, "In August 1944, during the battle for the liberation of Paris, five shells fell on the nymphs' rooms, two panels (those located on the wall between the two rooms) were damaged, but were immediately restored. This restoration work was renewed and a general cleaning was carried out."

Paul Guillaume 's widow, Mrs. Jean Walter, donated her collection of modern art to the National Museums of France in 1958. L'Orangerie has housed the Walter-Guillaume collection of Impressionist paintings, from the XIX and XX centuries, since 1965.

The museum closed in January 2000 so workers could repair and refresh the building. It reopened to visitors in May 2006. Just before it closed, the museum held a special show of Monet’s Les Nymphéas (Water Lilies) paintings. More than 60 of the 250 water-lily works from museums around the world were shown, and the walls were painted purple and violet for the occasion.^[4]

After the renovations, the Les Nymphéas paintings were moved to the top floor. Monet wanted them shown in soft, spread-out light, and the museum now follows that plan. Eight of the large paintings hang in two separate rooms.

Musée de l'Orangerie

History

Main works

Paul Cézanne

Claude Monet

Pablo Picasso

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Henri Rousseau

Amedeo Modigliani

References

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