Paris serves up visual feast featuring Rodin, Man Ray and Monet

Art and sculpture collections great and small can be found in the French capital.

Monet’s Sunrise at Musee Marmottan Monet..

1. Musee Rodin

The Thinker at Musee Rodin

The first sculpture by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) that greets visitors is his most recognisable work, The Thinker, cast in bronze and encircled by high hedges at the former Hotel Biron, home to his studio, which opened as a museum in 1919. Tall-ceilinged rooms are filled with the sculptor’s works and pieces by his contemporaries and from his personal collection, plus vintage photographs, drawings and personal objects. The landscaped formal garden, with lake, fountain and avenues of trees, is a fine place to dawdle, although the cafe is under renovation and reopens early next year. Also visit the subsidiary Musee Rodin at Meudon, housed in his villa and atelier set in parkland overlooking the Seine valley.

Tip: For the Paris site, arrive as gates open at 10am, preferably on a Sunday, for a less-crowded experience; a retrospective by Barbara Hepworth, displayed in the reception centre by the gift store, runs until March 22.

Open: Tuesday to Sunday; Meudon opens Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons and is about 30 minutes from Invalides, Paris, by train and bus.

• musee-rodin.fr/en
• musee-rodin.fr/en/meudon

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2. Musee des Arts Decoratifs

Man Ray’s maharajah and his maharani.

This early 1900s building on Rue de Rivoli has a terrific Moderne Maharajah exhibition until January 12. The ruler of Indore in central-west India, Yashwant Rao Holkar II, was a visionary patron of modernist architects and designers, cultivating the likes of Le Corbusier and filling his 1930s-built Manik Bagh Palace with key pieces. Portraits by Man Ray of the debonair chap and his maharani are also on display amid tableaux of palace rooms with more than 500 items to make any art deco or mid-century devotee swoon. The vast museum, in the west wing of the Louvre, is a treat to visit any time and is one of the city’s busiest but is easy to negotiate via specific collections that include glassware, furniture, jewellery and textiles, and lavish salons themed by eras from the late 15th to early 20th centuries.

Tip: Une Histoire de la Chaussure exhibition, which tracks the cultural significance of shoes, runs until February 23.

Open: Tuesday to Sunday.

• madparis.fr/en.

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3. Musee Marmottan Monet

The work of Impressionism’s most famous female artist, Berthe Morisot (1841-1895), who married Eugene Manet, the brother of influential painter Edouard, is well represented here in a former royal hunting lodge beside the Bois de Boulogne. Significant bequests have been made by collectors, including in 1966 when Michel, the second son of Claude Monet (1840-1926), donated a substantial number of his father’s works. These are now displayed in a large salon, including the seminal canvas Impression Sunrise (1872), which gave the en plein air Impressionist movement its name. Controversially, the painting was stolen in 1985, but recovered and returned to the permanent exhibition six years later. Combine a visit with Musee de L’Orangerie for a full-blown Monet experience.

Tip: An exhibition titled Cezanne and the Italian Masters will be hung February 27-July 5.

Open: Tuesday to Sunday.

• marmottan.fr/en

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4. Musee de L’Orangerie

Reflecting on Monet’s lilies.

To truly appreciate the scope of Monet’s paintings of his waterlily ponds and gardens at his Giverny home, this collection, in the southwest corner of the Tuileries, facing Place de la Concorde, is a must-see. The building dates back to Napoleon III, who had the orangerie built in 1852 to protect his citrus trees over winter. Fast forward to the 1920s when Monet was working on Nympheas, his huge blue-and-mauve oil canvases of waterlilies, and collaborated with architect Camille Lefevre to display eight panels, 2m tall and 91m long, across two wrap-around oval salons. The east-west orientation of the building matches the axis along the Champs-Elysees to the Tuileries. Further renovations, completed in 2006, opened up the massive murals to more daylight.

Tip: The Domenica Walter-Paul Guillaume collection of post-Impressionist works, including by Modigliani and Matisse, is closed for an upgrade of facilities until March 31.

Open: Wednesday to Monday.

• musee-orangerie.fr/en