The building itself is even interesting as it was built in 1977 inside a converted old train station from the beginning of the 20th century, much of which is still visible, such as the large spacious barrel vaulted roof covering the massive space. 
The first floor had dozens of elaborate scultpures, all dating around the mid to late-ninteenth centuries. Throughout the rest of the building is scattered more recent sculptures from the 20th century (...sorry, but I can't remember who made them all).
By several of them, especially the large ones, they also displayed the artist's small clay practice models, which I found particularly interesting to see how the artist got from a blank canvas to the heavily detailed and precise lifelike sculptures.
... here is that same work of art, as a finished product cast in metal.
The techniques never cease to amaze me, such as combining different stones so seamlessly in this one to create different colors. The amount of skill and effort that would go into a sculpture like this is amazing.
...an Edgar Degas scultpure (actually knew this one) of a young dancer. I love how well he can translate his beautiful impressionistic painting style into a unique form of sculpture.
... a scultpure of a young boy, done by a post-impressionist painter (but I forget which one), that I thought captured the sweet simplistic innocence of a young child.
The museum also had several architectural models that were beyond amazingly detailed. I've always enjoyed looking at such intricately built models (probably what got me interested in architecture as a kid in the first place), and these didn't disappoint. This particular one of a section of the city was so large, it was stored in it's own room beneath the floor with a thick glass cover you could walk on.
Here is another example of a cool model, a section cut of the opera house in Paris. I can't imagine (actually, I could imagine, lol) how long it would take to place all the intricate minute details, like all the tiny chairs and chandeliers and ceiling paintings, right down to even the moldings along the walls. very very cool.
And then of course, the paintings! oh I could have stayed up there all day! We saw in all the museums several people that would just sit in front of a painting and copy it, each with their own easel, paints, and ipods. How amazing that would be. ...this particular painting is one of Monet's many paintings of haystacks.
Here are two of his (pretty sure they're Monet, correct me if I'm wrong) women with parasols
Here is Renoir's famous 1876 painting, Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette.
These are a couple of Sisley's waterscapes (he is the artist who's painting I copied, but I couldn't find that particular painting here).
This is an Edgar Degas painting titled Women Ironing, which I love for its soft colors and realistic portrayal of what may seem to commonplace, yet so intriguing to me.
Van Gogh's famous post-impressionist painting with skewed perspective and bright unrealistic colors, The Bedroom
... his self portrait was a popular painting, took me a while to get a picture of this one.
Renior had such beautiful paintings here, like these people dancing.
... and one of my favorites, Girls at the Piano, done in 1892 (I copied this one in 9th grade French class for a project on famous french artists... though it didn't turn out quite as nicely as the original).
They also had a sampling of some of the studies of Seurat's pointillistic Sunday Afternoon painting.These were just a few of the dozens and dozens of great artworks I'd only seen in books before. I greatly enjoyed the chance to see them in person. I'd go back to this museum in a heartbeat.
(p.s. this is my 100th post since I started my blog! whoop! :D who would've guessed I'd have enough to say to hit that mark in just two and a half years? and what a better way to celebrate it than with the post about my favorite museum? couldn't have planned it better if I'd tried.)
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