With nearly 4,000 items in its inventory, the Musée des Arts Décoratifs’ collection reveals like no other the different currents of Art Nouveau in France and consists of furniture ensembles, ceramics, glass, and silverware, as well as paintings, stained glass, wallpaper, and posters. Unlike other public collections assembled during the 20th century, the acquisitions – many of them gifts from artists, but also numerous commissions and purchases – made by Ucad between 1889 and 1910 reflect the taste of collectors in France around 1900.

To discover the origins of the museum’s Art Nouveau collection, one must enter the vast “Salon du bois” located on the first floor of the museum, behind the main nave. Designed by the decorator, collector and ceramist Georges Hoentschel, this spectacular ensemble of woodwork and furniture comes from the Union centrale des arts décoratifs (Ucad) pavilion, built on the esplanade des Invalides for the 1900 Universal Exhibition. The Salon du Bois was modified by Hoentschel and reassembled in 1905 in the grand gallery of the Marsan pavilion for the opening of the museum. The selection of objects in the showcase – most of which were acquired between 1890 and 1900 and exhibited in the Ucad pavilion – still reveals the masterpieces of French Art Nouveau in goldsmithing, ceramics and glass.