The major exhibition of post-Impressionist works on loan from the Musee D'Orsay opened to the public yesterday, with a queue of about 150 people filling the bridge at the entrance to the National Gallery by the time the doors opened.

It's hardly surprising: the show has been described as one of the most important exhibitions ever to come to the National Gallery, and the first and probably the last time Australians will be able to see a show on this scale of works from the era.

The Musee D'Orsay, which only holds works from the post-Impressionist era, from 1848 to 1915, is undergoing refurbishments, and decided to send many of the great works on a three-stop international tour, rather than keeping them in storage until it reopens in 2011.

By 2pm yesterday, the gallery had already sold 600 tickets over the counter, with many more pre-sales or tickets sold online. Visitors came from all over the place to see the famous works by Vincent van Gogh, Pierre Bonnard, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec and Paul Cezanne, among about 30 others.

David Kouchnerkavich, of Los Angeles, was in Australia for a two-week holiday and discovered just 10 days ago that the exhibition was coming. He made a special detour on his way home to the US to take in the works.

''This is phenomenal,'' he said. ''I'd always wanted to go to Paris in the springtime, and the Musee D'Orsay was on the top of my list.''

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