The Musée d’Orsay resides within a renovated old railway station. This was the Gare d’Orsay. It sits on the Seine across from the Louvre. This is another art gallery of historic importance. It should never be an either or choice between the Louvre and the Musée d’Orsay. It, like the Louvre, is a “must see.”
What draws the crowds to the Musée d’Orsay is the wealth of works by the Impressionists. Within these walls are several celebrated works by Renoir, Manet, Monet and the American Whistler.
Visitors flock to stand in front of Déjeuner sur l’herbe (Manet, 1863), Olympia (Manet, 1865), Moulin de la Galette and Absinthe (Renoir, 1876), Rouen Cathédrale: Full Sunlight (Monet, 1894) and Arrangement in Grey and Black: A Study of the Painter’s Mother (Whistler, 1871).There are also works by Ingres, Delacroix, Daumier, Corbet, Van Gogh and Cezanne.
Besides the paintings, the Musée d’Orsay displays within its 80 galleries, Belle Époque furniture, photographs, objets d’arte and architectural models.