Pierre-Auguste Renoir, a dear friend of Monet, gifted one of his paintings, "Bathers with a Crab," to the French state on the condition that it be displayed at the Orangerie Museum . The painting is now part of the museum's collection.

The Water Lilies series at the Orangerie Museum was a lifelong project for Monet, and he worked on it for over 30 years until he died in 1926.

Before becoming a museum, the Orangerie Museum hosted the Salon des Tuileries, an annual art exhibition that showcased contemporary French art. Only at the beginning of the 20th century was the Orangerie turned into an art gallery museum.