Musée d’Orsay

This collection covers a variety of art forms from the 1848-1941 period, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography, and is best known for its superb impressionists masterpieces by popular painters such as Monet and Renior. Its setting, in a converted railway station, is equally impressive. Built in 1900, in time for the Paris Exposition, the station was in use until 1939, when it was closed and largely ignored. It was later used as a theatre and as auction rooms, and in the mid-1970s was considered demolition. In 1977, the Paris authorities decided to save the imposing station building by converting it into this striking museum.

From left to right is paintings of Renoir, Monet, Gauguin, and Thomas Couture.