Musée de l'Orangerie

The gallery is on the bank of the Seine in the old orangery of the Tuileries Palace on the Place de la Concorde near the Concorde metro station and not far from the Louvre and the Musee d'Orsay. ==History==

Napoleon III had the Orangerie built in 1852, to store the citrus trees of the Tuileries garden from the cold in the winter. ==Monet's Water Lilies==

Nymphéas on display in the museum After World War I, changes came to the Orangerie. In 1921, the State gave the building to the Under-Secretariat of State for Fine Arts along with another building, the Jeu de Paume. The goal for these two buildings was to provide a space for living artists to display their works. , one of Monet's eight large oil-on-canvas murals displayed in two oval rooms in the museum|alt=|center ==Exhibits between 1930 and 1950==

The Orangerie was joined with the Louvre in 1930. The western half of the Orangerie was dedicated to temporary exhibitions for the Louvre and other national museums in France. Each year, the Orangerie hosted a variety of exhibitions. From 1930 to 1933, the Orangerie hosted an exhibition on Impressionism. In 1934, the exhibition Peintres de la realité (Painters of Reality) was dedicated to the 17th century and became famous. In 1936, the exhibition Rubens et son temps (Rubens and his Age) attracted a million visitors to the museum. There was an entire exhibition dedicated to Degas in 1937, titled in his name. In 1942, there was an exhibition dedicated entirely to Arno Breker, who was an official artist of the Third Reich and who studied in France. In 1946, after the end of World War II, many masterpieces from private collections were recovered in Germany by the French Commission for Art Recovery and the Monuments Men and they were displayed in the Orangerie. ==The Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume Collection==

The Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume collections were acquired in 1959 and 1963 respectively. Domenica Walter (1898–1977) was the widow of both Paul Guillaume (1891–1934) and Jean Walter (1883–1957). Paul Guillaume was an art dealer and his desire was to create a museum of French modern art that would be open to the public. ==Renovations between 2000 and 2006==

The most recent renovation was made by Olivier Brochet between 2000 and 2006. The rooms that were previously constructed on two levels were knocked down and natural light was restored to the Water Lilies. ==In popular culture==

The Musée de l'Orangerie is the main story point of the 2000 French adventure PC game Monet: The Mystery of the Orangery. The art gallery, specifically the Water Lilies paintings, was featured in Woody Allen's 2011 film Midnight in Paris and Mia Hansen-Løve's 2022 film One Fine Morning. ==Timeline==

The official site of the Orangerie presents a full historical timeline. ==See also==