NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

The museum is huge, separated into two wings connected by a mechanical conveyor belt. There is so much to see that you could easily spend several days there, especially since a coffee shop (Cascade Café) offers a very good selection of sandwiches and drinks. At the entrance to the museum, maps in French are available - use them, you will need them to find your way around! Please note that guided tours of the museum are offered in French on a fairly regular basis (see the website), and they are free of charge.

Here is a selection of things to see, as exhaustive as possible.

West Building

Opened in 1941, it was the largest marble building in the world at the time. Today, European works of art from the 13th to the 19th century can be found there.

Italian art from the 13th century to the 15th century. Galleries 1 to 15, mainly religious works. To see: The Nativity with the Prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel (1308-1311), by Ducco di Buoninsegna. This painting depicting the birth of Jesus was part of a gigantic work that was unveiled in the streets of Siena in 1311, before being installed in the city's Gothic cathedral. In the same gallery, a second painting, The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew, is from the same work. Don't miss also the two bronze sculptures by Michel Anguier, representing Neptune and Ceres, as well as several models of Edgar Degas' La Petite Danseuse de Quatorze Ans.

16th century Italian and Spanish art. Galleries 16 to 28. Several versions of Scenes from a Legend (1515-1520), by Florentine Giovanni Larciani, known for his oil paintings of bucolic landscapes, can be admired. Also worth mentioning is Laocoön (1610-1614) by Domenikos Theotokopoulos, an oil painting representing the mythological figure Laocoön, whose history became the centre of countless works after a marble sculpture representing him was found in Rome in 1506 (it is now on display in the Vatican). Finally, The Alba Madonna (1511), a religious painting by Raphael depicting Mary holding the child Jesus in her arms.

Dutch and German art from the 15th and 16th centuries. Galleries 35, 35A, 38 to 41A. Room 35A: 2 works of woodcarving, A Bishop Saint by Tilman Riemenschneider (1515-1520) and The Holy Kinship (1480-1490, unknown), incredibly rich in detail. Room 38: Portrait of a Lady (1460), by Rogier Van Der Weyden. Room 39: The Annunciation (1434-1436), by Jan Van Eyck.

17th century Dutch and Flemish art. Galleries 42 to 51. Of particular note are Rembrandt's paintings (1606-1669), which are grouped in room 48: Man in Oriental Costume (1635), An Old Lady with a Book (1637), The Mill (1645-1648), The Descent from the Cross (1650-1652), The Apostle Paul (1657), Philemon and Baucis (1658) and also A Young Man Seated at a Table (1660). Whether you like baroque painting or not, the effect is striking. Some of Rembrandt's self-portraits (he has done more than a hundred!) are sometimes displayed in this room.

Spanish art of the 18th and 19th centuries. Gallery 52. Some portraits by the Spanish painter Francisco de Goya, including Young Lady Wearing a Mantilla and Basquina (1800-1805) and María Teresa de Borbón y Vallabriga (1783), one of four portraits of this young Spanish aristocrat, cousin of Charles IV of Spain, taken by the painter.

French art of the 18th and early 19th centuries. Galleries 53 to 56. We will admire the four paintings by Jean-Honoré Fragonard, La Balançoire (1775-1780), Diane and Endymion (1753-1756), Un Jeu de cheval et le Cavalier (1775-1780), Le Colin Maillard (1775-1780). These works are distinguished by their rococo style and the frivolous moments they capture, featuring richly dressed young people having fun in an idealized natural setting. Also in this room are Claude Joseph Vernet's Le Naufrage (1772), and one of the most famous portraits of Napoleon I, L'Empereur Napoléon in his study at the Tuileries (1812), by Jacques-Louis David. She represents Napoleon I in uniform wearing the Legion of Honour.

English art. Galleries 57, 58, 59 and 61. Don't miss Gainsborough's portraits, including The Hon. Mrs. Thomas Graham (1775-77). A fashionable portrait painter during his lifetime, he received many royal commissions and made portraits of King George III and his wife Charlotte. Gainsborough was also one of the most famous landscape architects of his time. One of its landscapes, Seashore with Fishermen (1781-1782), can be admired here. Some other landscapes by British artists, such as Moonlight on the Yare (1816-1817), directed by John Crome, are also worth seeing.

American art. Galleries 60, 60A, 60B, 62 to 71. These galleries feature portraits by Gilbert Stuart, well known in the United States for his unfinished portrait of George Washington, on display at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In Room 60B, his portraits of prominent American politicians can be admired, including Richard Yates (1793-1794), James Monroe (1817), Thomas Jefferson (1821), James Madison (1821) and the completed portrait of George Washington (1821). We will not fail to discover room 63, where George Catlin's paintings are gathered. He painted many portraits of Indians, including The Female Eagle - Shawano (1830), Boy Chief - Ojibbeway (1843) and The White Cloud, Head Chief of the Iowas (1844-1845). Catlin was the first white man to represent the Indians on their territory and in their traditional dress. Also to be seen in room 66, the portrait of George Peter Alexander Healy depicting Abraham Lincoln at the request of King Louis-Philippe of France, this is one of the last portraits of Lincoln without his famous beard.

French art of the 19th century. Galleries 80 to 85 and 91 to 93. In room 80 are grouped together many works by the impressionist artist Claude Monet, including two paintings from the series of Rouen Cathedrals (1894), as well as La Seine à Giverny (1897), which is one of a series of 9 paintings painted the same year and one (Bras de Seine in Giverny) is on display at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. The self-portraits of Gauguin (1889) and Van Gogh (1889) are on display in room 83. To admire Gustave Courbet's landscapes, you will have to go to room 92, where two of his works are located: La Plage à Trouville and Mer calme (1865-1866).

East Building

Opened in 1978, this building was designed to display the permanent collection of modern art and special exhibitions.

On the ground floor: Impressionism, postimpressionism and realism. Some of the works we have loved: L'Atelier d'artiste (1900), by Pierre Bonnard; Nature morte (1905) by Henri Matisse; New York (1911), by George Bellows, Ground Swell (1939), by Edward Hopper. In the atrium, some iron and bronze works, such as Max Ernst's monumental sculpture Capricorn.

Upstairs (upper level) and mezzanine: many works by Picasso including La Tragédie (1903), Le Gourmet (1901), La Femme à (1905). Then, Head of a Catalan Peasant (1924), by Joan Miro; Painting No. IV, by Piet Mondrian; The Look of Amber, by Yves Tanguy; some Andy Warhol with Green Marilyn (1962), Mao (1973) and A Boy for Meg (1962).

Above (tower): works of modern art, mainly the motives of the American artist Alexander Calder, including Rearing Stallion (1928) and Little Spider (1940) to name but a few.