The Musée du Luxembourg is situated between the famous Jardin du Luxembourg and the Senate. Constructed by Marie de Medici, it was originally housed in the Palais de Luxembourg and in 1750 became the first French museum to  open to the public. Around 200 paintings were exhibited there, 100 of which came from the Royal Collection (Cabinet du Roi) by Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, Veronese, Titian, Poussin, Van Dyck and Rembrandt.

In 1886, the Senate inaugurated the current building of the Musée du Luxembourg. The museum thus entered a long period of inactivity. It was closed after a national museum of modern art was built in the Palais de Tokyo in 1937, and reopened to the public in 1979. The Ministry of Culture organised exhibitions there highlighting France's regional heritage with collections from provincial museums.