Built in 1852, under the Second Empire, to house during the winter the orange trees decorating the garden of the Tuileries Palace, the current Orangerie Museum has undergone several campaigns of work to consolidate and transform the building. In 1921, he was assigned to the Sub-Secretary of State for Fine Arts to exhibit living artists. Georges Clemenceau, then President of the Council, proposed to install there the large ensemble of Water Lilies, a masterpiece that opens new paths announcing the 20th century and that Claude Monet offered to the State at the end of the First World War to celebrate the armistice and peace. He inaugurated the «Claude Monet museum» in 1927, a few months after the artist’s death. In 1966, the State’s choice to exhibit the Jean Walter and Paul Guillaume collection, acquired in 1959 and 1963, gave the «first modern French art museum» its definitive appearance, accessible to the public.