The origin of the painting collections in the Musée d'Orsay goes back to the Musée du Luxembourg, which was founded by Louis XVIII, in 1818, to exhibit the works of living artists.
The arrangement was that ten years after the death of the artist, works whose "glory had been confirmed by universal opinion" would be transferred to the Louvre; the others were sent to other institutions or departments.
At the beginning, the collections in the Musée du Luxembourg were almost exclusively built up by purchases at the Salon. They therefore reflected the official taste of the period with an emphasis on history painting, portraits and classical landscapes according to a clearly established hierarchy of genres.
Until the 1880s, the Musée du Luxembourg remained closed to the latest experiments in art. Courbet and Millet, for example, were not exhibited there in their lifetime.
It took a concerted effort by the artists, their families, collectors and some civil servants for contemporary art at last to enter French national collections.
