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Musée d'Orsay

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Vincent Van Gogh: Starry Night Over the Rhone, painted in September 1888 at Arles
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Vincent Van Gogh: Starry Night Over the Rhone, painted in September 1888 at Arles

The Musée d'Orsay is a museum in Paris on the left bank of the Seine near Musée d'Orsay RER line C station. It holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1914, including paintings, sculptures, furniture, and photography. Many of these works were held at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume up to 1986.

History

The museum building was originally a railway station, constructed for the Orleans Railway Company and finished in time for the Exposition Universelle (World Fair) of 1900 to the design of three architects: Lucien Magne, Emile Bénard and Victor Laloux. It was the terminus for the railways of southwestern France until 1939.

By 1939 the station's short platforms had become unsuitable for the longer trains that had come to be used for mainline services. After 1939 it was used for suburban services and part of it became a mailing center during World War II. The station's hotel closed on 1 January 1973.

In 1977 the French Government decided to convert the station to a museum and it was opened by President François Mitterrand on 1 December 1986.

Directors

Collection

Major painters

Major sculpters

François Rude, Honoré Daumier, Jules Cavelier, Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, Auguste Rodin, Paul Gauguin, Camille Claudel and Honoré Daumier.

Other works

It also holds collections of:

External links

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