A Morning with Leslie and Ilona

Back in the day during Dimi's visit, we managed to get together with one of Dimi's best friends, Leslie, who happened to be on an art tour in France with her friend, Ilona. You've already heard about our out-of-this-world lunch at Fish La Boissonnerie, but before lunch was even the hint of a rumble in our bellies, we started our day by visiting the Musée de l'Orangerie.

Located at the far end of the Tuileries from the Louvre, the Musée de l'Orangerie (as its name suggests) originally sheltered the Emperor's orange grove, starting in 1852. By 1870, apparently disdainful of the health benefits of oranges the Third Republic used the building as storage, a test-taking facility, a barracks, a venue for sports and music and political rallies and industrial trade shows and dog shows and flower shows, not to mention a paintings exhibition hall. Finally, in 1921, the building was given to the Beaux-Arts administration, who turned it into a modern art museum.


The building's transformation into an art museum took place with a particular work in mind: Claude Monet had just donated his epic Nymphéas (Waterlillies) series to his country, and asked only that a space be designed to accommodate the uniquely proportioned paintings. Housed in two specially-designed elliptical-shaped rooms that feature skylights covered in diaphanous materials to facilitate the gentle dispersion of natural light, Nymphéas was and remains the main event of the Musée de l'Orangerie. It's easy to see why.

Besides Nymphéas, the museum's permanent collection (donated by the widow of the influential modern art collector Paul Guillaume) includes pieces by Renoir, Manet, Cézanne, Sisley, Derain, Matisse, Picasso, Soutine, Utrillo, and Modigliani. There are quite a few portraits, and it is all extremely good stuff.

(You will get so many brownie points if you can name the artists and piece titles of these four paintings. Mo, good luck.)

The collection supplements what you'll find in the Musée d'Orsay and the Centre Pompidou, and for the lover of fin-de-siècle and early-twentieth-century art, the Musée de l'Orangerie is a must-see.

The museum is also a must-see for the lover of Paris city walls, as a fragment of the 16th-century enceinte that protected west end of the Louvre-and-Tuileries complex was unearthed during recent renovations and left visible for museum-goers. 

So cool!