Located in the heart of Paris, in the Tuileries Garden, the Musée de l'Orangerie presents two emblematic collections of early 20th century artistic creation: Claude Monet’s Water Lilies and the Walter-Guillaume collection. Renovated in 2006, the museum offers visitors a poetic and artistic discovery of these prestigious ensembles. The Water Lilies Both monumental and intimate, The Water Lilies are the expression and culmination of the artistic thought of Claude Monet. Crazy project of a painter who wanted to explore all the variations of light in his garden of Giverny, The Water lilies unfold in two oval rooms and invite the visitor to an endless contemplation. In the aftermath of the Great War, Monet wanted his work to take on this aesthetic and poetic dimension and thus offer Parisians a refuge, a place of peace and meditation. The Walter-Guillaume collection An intellectual project of the merchant Paul Guillaume and his wife Domenica, the Walter-Guillaume collection is a unique collection that illustrates the creation of the first decades of the 20th century. Paul Guillaume is a figure of the artistic and literary circles of Paris in the 1920s, of which he is the witness and the patron. A friend of Guillaume Apollinaire and Max Jacob, he supported Picasso, Soutine, Derain and Marie Laurencin, while taking an interest in their predecessors, notably Renoir and Cézanne. Paul Guillaume died in 1934 without having had time to carry out his project of modern art museum. Completed and modified by his wife, the collection is refocused around works representative of modern classicism and impressionism before being handed over to the State in 1960.
Access: Metro: 1, 8, 12 station Concorde Bus: 24, 42, 52, 72, 73, 84, 94 stop Concorde Parking: Concorde (corner of Avenue Gabriel and Place de la Concorde) or Jardin des Tuileries (38 rue du Mont-Thabor) Musée national de l'Orangerie