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.

Image artist function date
Hector Guimard Architect | Decorator 1867-1942
Louis Majorelle Cabinetmaker 1859-1926
Émile Gallé Glassmaker | Cabinetmaker | Ceramist | Art industrialist 1846-1904
Alexandre Louis-Marie Charpentier Sculptor | Medallist | Cabinetmaker | Painter 1856-1909
Henri Rapin Designer | Painter | Decorator 1873-1939
Georges de Feure Illustrator | Painter | Decorator 1868-1943
François-Rupert Carabin Sculptor | Medallist | Goldsmith | Cabinetmaker | Photographer 1862-1932
Eugène Gaillard Architect | Cabinetmaker 1862-1933
Jean-Joseph-Marie Carriès Sculptor | Ceramist 1855- 1894
Eugène Grasset Engraver | Poster artist | Decorator | Architect 1845-1917
Pierre Adrien Dalpayrat Ceramist 1844-1910
Ernest Chaplet Ceramist 1835-1909
Cover Author Description date Link
Gabriel P. Weisberg Art Nouveau Bing, Paris style 1900

ISBN: 0865280312
H. N. Abrams, the Smithsonian institution
Philippe Thiébaut Guimard

ISBN: 9782711823291
Réunion des musées nationaux
2022
Danielle Kisluk-Grosheide Salvaging the past, Georges Hoentschel and French decorative arts from the Metropolitan museum of art

ISBN: 0300190247
The Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the, cop., the Metropolitan museum of art, Yale university press
Dominique Kalifa, Jean-Claude Yon, Pierre Citti, Myriam Chimènes, Dominique Lobstein, Patrice Higonnet, Laure Troubetzkoy Paris 1900, la ville spectacle

ISBN: 978-2-7596-0244-5
Paris Musées

Partner:
Musée des Arts Décoratifs (MAD)

107 rue de Rivoli,
75001, Paris
France

Phone: 01 44 55 58 64
E-mail: audrey.gay-mazuel@madparis.fr