Musée de l'Orangerie

Musée de l'Orangerie Review

People line up for hours to see Claude Monet's huge, meditative Water Lilies (Nymphéas), displayed in galleries designed in 1914 by the master himself. The museum, once a winter greenhouse for the Tuileries' citrus trees, was renovated in 2006. The small, excellent collection includes early-20th-century paintings by Renoir, Cézanne, and Matisse, among others. Much of the private collection of art dealer Paul Guillaume is here, as well as a miniature model of his Parisian apartment. You can see Modigliani's painting of Guillaume with the notation "Novo Pilota," meaning new pilot or leader, signaling Guillaume's status as an important patron of contemporary art.