Museum of Orsay

Gazing up at the magnificent façade of the Musée d’Orsay, have you ever wondered about its past life? This architectural marvel wasn’t always a museum. The Musée d’Orsay began its existence as the Gare d’Orsay, a bustling train station built between 1898 and 1900. Designed by three architects, Lucien Magne, Émile Bénard, and Victor Laloux, it served as the terminus for railways of southwestern France. The station was completed just in time for the 1900 Exposition Universelle, a world’s fair hosted in Paris. Its Beaux-Arts style was considered somewhat anachronistic for such a modern innovation as a train station. Yet, the elegant design masked the cutting-edge technology within. The Musée d’Orsay’s history takes a dramatic turn in 1939. The station’s platforms were deemed too short for the increasingly longer trains of the era. It was subsequently used for suburban services and even served as a mailing center during World War II. The building’s life took another unexpected turn. It became a filming location for movies like Orson Welles’s adaptation of Kafka’s “The Trial.” It even became a temporary home for the Renaud-Barrault Theatre Company. In the 1970s, plans to demolish the station were thankfully halted. Jacques Duhamel, the Minister for Cultural Affairs, recognized the building’s historical significance. The station earned a spot on the supplementary list of Historic Monuments and was fully listed in 1978. The idea to transform the station into a museum came from the Directorate of the Museums of France. The Musée d’Orsay was intended to bridge the gap between the Louvre and the National Museum of Modern Art at the Centre Georges Pompidou. President Georges Pompidou approved the plan. In 1978, a competition to design the museum’s interior was launched. ACT Architecture, a trio of young architects, won the contract. They created an impressive 20,000 square meters of new floor space across four floors. The construction work was carried out by Bouygues. Italian architect Gae Aulenti designed the interior, including the layout, decoration, and furnishings. Aulenti’s design incorporated the building’s original features. For instance, the central nave on the main level was formed from the former train platforms. In July 1986, the museum was ready. It took six months to install the roughly 2,000 paintings, 600 sculptures, and other works of art. Finally, in December 1986, President François Mitterrand officially opened the Musée d’Orsay. Today, the Musée d’Orsay is renowned for its collection of primarily French art from 1848 to 1914. It houses the largest collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces globally. Artists such as Monet, Manet, Degas, Renoir, Cézanne, and Van Gogh are featured prominently. In 2023, it welcomed 3.9 million visitors, making it one of the most visited art museums in Europe. The Musée d’Orsay’s journey from train station to art museum is a testament to the power of vision.