Online resources

Visit information sheets

These information sheets are for teachers, who may or may not specialise in the history of art, who are planning a school visit. They are in two parts: a factual presentation of the theme of the visit, and a possible museum trail offering a choice of around a dozen featured works. Only the information sheets in English are presented here. Other sheets may be downloaded from the French website.
Please note. The temporary displays of Musée d'Orsay works are changed frequently. Check that the works you wish to see are still on show before you come to the Museum. The location of artworks is updated every morning, before the Museum opens, based on information from the previous evening.

• What is a museum ? The Musée d'Orsay
• Painters, the Salon, and Critics, 1848-1870
• In the Times of Impressionist Exhibitions (1874-1886)
• After Impressionism, from Van Gogh to Matisse (1886-1906)
• Orientalism
• The Rise of Landscape Painting
• The Portrait. Painting and Sculpture in France between 1850 and 1900
• Children, Images by Artists And Social Realities
• The Rural World Seen by Artists, 1848-1914
• The Industrial World Represented by 19th-Century Artists
• Paris, a 19th-Century City
• The Opéra by Charles Garnier
• French Sculpture, Daumier, Carpeaux, Rodin...
• Art and Power
• References to Antiquity in Visual Arts (1848-1914)
• The Republic and its Images
• British and American Painters at the Musée d'Orsay

Museum floor plan

The location of artworks is updated every morning, before the Museum opens, based on information from the previous evening.
This tool helps you plan a visit to the museum based on your own selection of artworks.
It is simple to use: Using the museum floor plan, choose the works of art that you want to include in your visit, using the icon . Then go to your personal space and click on your visit plan. Your selection of works will appear on the screen. By clicking on "Print" you will receive a floor plan and your list of artworks.
Consult museum floor plan
Learn more about visit plans

Works in focus

The commentated works, compiled specifically for the website, enable you to discover more than 800 works held in the Musée d'Orsay permanent collections.
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The index of works

This catalogue contains the works from the Musée d'Orsay's collections except the Musée d'Orsay's collection of drawings, which is kept at the graphic arts department of the Louvre. When used with the personal album, it enables you to create files of artworks.
It is easy to use: Make your search from the catalogue of works, then choose the works you wish to keep in your album by clicking on the icon . Then go to your personal album, click on your album, and your selection of works will appear on the screen.
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The history of the museum

Situated in the heart of Paris, on the banks of the Seine, opposite the Tuileries Gardens, the museum was installed in the former Orsay railway station, built for the Universal Exhibition of 1900.
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The history of the collections

The national museum of the Musée d'Orsay opened to the public on 9 December 1986 to show the great diversity of artistic creation in the western world between 1848 and 1914.
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