In 1900 the Exposition Universelle drew thousands of art lovers to Paris, many of them arriving by train at the new Gare d’Orsay. Who among them would have thought that the train station where they disembarked would become an illustrious institution holding the greatest collection of Impressionist art in the world? Opened in 1986 and located on the Left Bank of the River Seine opposite the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay today is home to some 100,000 works dating from 1848 to 1914.
Before being transformed into a showcase for paintings by the likes of Berthe Morisot, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Gustave Caillebotte, and many more, the Victor Laloux–designed building played several roles in the life of the city. After being decommissioned as a station, it served as a reception center for prisoners after World War II, was a film set for Orson Welles’s 1962 movie The Trial, and was used as an auction venue while the Hôtel Drouot was closed. Its conversion into a museum was led by architects Renaud Bardon, Pierre Colboc, and Jean-Paul Philippon.
Here are 25 masterpieces in the Musée d’Orsay’s collection. (Please note that not all of these works are on view at a given time—we have indicated those that are currently displayed and where they may be found on this map.)