Best Paris Art Galleries
The Louvre
The Louvre, perhaps the most famous art gallery in the world, dominates the centre of Paris. Some 35,000 works of art cram the long hallways and subterranean passageways of this 800 year-old royal fortress, which now inhabits more than a mile of the Right Bank’s central riverside.
Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa is the museum’s highlight (and worth seeing for its fame alone), and the legendary glass pyramid standing in the museum’s courtyard is photographic gold. But the Louvre is too much for many - too big, too busy, too full - and certainly it’s best enjoyed in short visits. The wealth of art and history on display rewards those who know what they want to see, but doesn’t try very hard to impress (or even educate) more casual visitors.
Musee d’Orsay
Just across the river from the Louvre, and for more accessible than it’s bigger brother, stands the Musee d’Orsay. The Orsay is famous for impressionism - indeed, it it has one of the finest collections of Impressionist art in the world, including more Van Goghs, Monets and Seurats than you can shake a stick at.
Once a train station, the beautiful building still bears traces of it’s history, both inside and out. The adventurous can even grab a coffee in the restaurant that sits behind the giant eastern clockface - and enjoy impressive views over the Louvre, and northward over the city. Less famous than the Louvre, but almost certainly the museum you’ll most want to return to.
Pompidou Centre
Paris’ famous modern art gallery is a giant work of art itself - a building turned inside out, the Pompidou carries it’s brightly coloured pipes, cables and even it’s escalators on the outside. Visible from many parts of the city, the square at it’s base is often filled with street performers and artists, making it a vibrant gateway into the pubs and bars of the Marais district.
The building itself contains over 1300 works from classic modern artists, including Picasso, Dali and Braque, as well as regular exhibitions. It also houses the nation’s national film theatre, and one of the most youthful, accessible library and study spaces in the capital.
Palais de Tokyo
The Palais de Tokyo is the most contemporary of all Paris’ art galleries - housed in a beautiful art deco mansion in the posh western arrondisements, it plays host to the most cutting edge travelling exhibitions and has a small permanent collection of it’s own.
Open from midday to midnight, the Palais de Tokyo will almost certainly offer something wacky to entertain (or indeed to shock) even the stuffiest of fine art lovers.
Musee Picasso
He may have been a spaniard, but few artists are as linked to Paris as Pablo Picasso, who spent much of his life in the French capital. More than 3000 of the man’s drawings, paintings and sculptures are collected here, most of them from Picasso’s own personal collection, and all are complemented and contextualised by works from his contemporaries - Cezanne, Degas and Matisse amongst them.
The collection is housed in the Hotel Sale, built in the 17th Century and one of the finest historic mansions in the ancient (and lively) Marais district. If the art collections, from Picasso’s ‘blue period’, on to cubism and beyond fail to interest, the chance to explore the extravagant home of some of Paris’ richest aristocracy is well worth the cost of entry.
Musee Rodin
Several thousand bronze and marble sculptures from Paris’ most famous sculptor are collected together at the Musee Rodin, which sits in the shadow of the Invalides famous golden dome in Paris’ rich seventh arrondissement.
Amongst the most famous is a version of the iconic sculpture ‘The Thinker’, now resident in the museum sculpture garden, and an early, unfinished cast of the equally celebrated “The Kiss”.
Dali Museum
Eccentric spanish artist Salvador Dali made intellectual hang out Montmartre his home in the late 1920s - and a small building on the slopes of the hill, tucked away just off the Place du Tertre, now boasts a modest collection of his extravagant creations. It’s quite expensive, and targeted directly at the hordes of tourists visiting this most famous of Paris districts - but those in search of lobster phones, melting clocks and spindle-legged elephants will not come away disappointed.
