Decorative arts
Calendar
Interactive floor plan
Video gallery
Search
My selection
Educational offer
Sponsorship
Public administrative establishment
Museum shop
Newsletter
Contact us
Guest book
Musée de l'Orangerie
Musée Hébert
Site map
Interactive floor plan
Video gallery
Search
My selection
Educational offer
Sponsorship
Public administrative establishment
Museum shop
Newsletter
Contact us
Guest book
Musée de l'Orangerie
Musée Hébert
Site map
Wall cupboard
In 1870, the railway magnate Savva Mamontov and his wife Elizaveta acquired the Abramtsevo estate, former home of a literary circle in the 1830-1840s,...
Coat and Umbrella Stand
With its medieval inspiration, this coat and umbrella stand is a marvellous example of the adaptation of historical references to domestic purposes.The...
Screen with three leaves
This work constitutes a wonderful illustration of the decorative experimentation undertaken in the years leading up to the First World War, and in particular...
Chair
This ceremonial chair, as well as a second identical example kept at the Musée d'Orsay, was commissioned from the English architect Baillie Scott by Hans...
Angelica and Rogero
Barye's bronze ornaments are undeniably among the finest produced by any nineteenth-century sculptor. His decorative skills are particularly apparent in the...
Tartar warrior on horseback
Among Barye's bronzes are some exceptional castings adorned with champlevé enamels. They all appear to come from the collection of Emile Martin. Having...
Barley Ears
Georges Bastard’s family had been making chessboards and inlaid ware for generations; his grandfather Bastard-Lannoy, a specialist in working with the...
Dining room furniture
One of Queen Victoria's grandsons, Ernst Ludwig, the Grand Duke of Hesse, decided to make the little town of Darmstadt in Germany into a regional capital. In...
Candlestick
Benson, the English architect and designer, was famous between 1890-1914 for his production of domestic objects in metal. His utilitarian objects,...
Decorated Plate
Like Gauguin, certain Nabis - Maillol, Rippl-Rônai,Vuillard and Bonnard - took enthusiastically to producing ceramics. Abolishing the hierarchy of the major...
Screen
In 1894, Bonnard wrote to his mother: "I am working on a screen [...]. It is of the Place de la Concorde with a young mother walking with her children, with...
The Arts
A sculptor, goldsmith, jeweller and pewterer, Jules Brateau won a gold medal at the Universal Exhibition of 1889, where this ewer and its tray made of cast...
The Olive Tree
In 1897, Jules Brateau, sculptor, goldsmith, jeweller and pewterer, then at the height of his creative powers, exhibited a series of pewter goblets at the...
Bowl
Little is known about Brocard's life: he was probably self-taught and a collector and restorer of objets d'art. His production, on the other hand, was first...
Lady's Desk
A spider on one of the drawers, hazelnuts for handles? Carlo Bugatti had fun decorating this lady's writing desk and enjoyed his own whim. Indeed, everything...
Chair
The model for this chair was designed by Carlo Bugatti for one of the decorated pieces he presented at the first International Exhibition for Modern...
The Adoration of the Magi
In 1886 the rector of Exeter College, Oxford, commissioned William Morris, the soul of the Arts & Crafts movement, to make a tapestry for the college chapel....
Fountain and Bowl
Carabin was trained as a sculptor, but also turned his hand to the decorative arts. He produced about twenty pieces of furniture, between 1890 and 1904, in...
Bookcase
The important role of sculptors - Carriès, Dampt, Charpentier, etc. - in the revival of the decorative arts at the end of the 19th century is well known....
Infantry mounting an assault
This zinc cut-out is an unlikely object to find in the Musée d'Orsay collections. Made for a shadow theatre, it was not intended to be viewed directly but...
Console for the Grand Salon in the Hôtel de Païva
The Paris residence of the Marquise de Païva, in the Avenue des Champs-Elysées, is one of the finest examples of private architecture and interior design at...
Flower Pot Holder
In 1888, the sculptor Jean Carriès (1855-1894) moved to La Puisaye in the Nièvre to devote his time to stoneware. At the time, La Puisaye counted several...
Vase, double gourd form
Jean Carriès, whose works are well represented at the Musée d'Orsay, was also one of the great ceramicists of his time. This vase is a perfect example of...
Horror Mask
The Horror Mask can easily be dated thanks to an article by Arsène Alexandre that appeared in Paris on 24 June 1891. In the context of a visit to Montriveau...
Frog-Man
At the end of the 1880s, Carriès began to produce sculptures in stoneware. Essentially he repeated some of his previous works and initial studies made for a...
Plant Pot Holder
The technique and decoration of this piece place it in the late period (1885-1886) of the Paris studios of the manufacturer Haviland, which had been under the...
Clotho
Charpentier showed himself to be a master in the art of low relief from his very first exhibits at the Salon. His medals and plates with familiar or symbolist...
Dining Room Panelling
This collection of furniture remained relatively unknown until it was dismantled and bought by the future Musée d'Orsay in 1977 as until then, it had never...
Tray
At the exhibition of metal arts organised by the Central Union of Applied Industrial Arts in1880, the participation of the Maison Christofle was notable for...
Candy box
Whereas the famous reputation of the House of Christofle was built from the very beginning on its silverware, the copperware it produced was less well-known....
Kyoto service
It would be difficult to find a better illustration of the great success of Japonism in the 1870s than the multiplicity of applications in that most typically...
Large Ornamental Vase
The crystal works at Clichy-la-Garenne, founded in 1844, rose to prominence in the early Second Empire as France's major producer of coloured glassware....
Mantelpiece
Interest in monumental mantelpieces, whether functional or simply decorative, was curiously strong in the late 19th century. At the Salon de la Société...
Cup
The son of porcelain painter at the Sèvres factory, Albert Dammouse trained at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs and the Ecole Nationale des...
Chiffonnier
This piece of furniture may well have been one of the first attempts, if not the first, at producing furniture by Jean Dampt, a sculptor by training. As a...
Carafe with Lorraine crosses
In 1878, Jean Daum took over the Avril, Bertrand et Cie glassworks which had been built in Nancy in 1874. For ten years or so, production was restricted to...
Vase
The interest of this small glass vase lies in the absence of any motif. It illustrates Daum's wish to explore new avenues, where there would be no place for...
Cup
In spring 1912, the glassmaker François Décorchemont exhibited for the first time at the Salon des Artistes Décorateurs, then at the Salon des Artistes...
Dining chair
A major figure of the Amsterdam School, Michel De Klerk strove to transform the Rationalist and neo-Gothic principles of Viollet-le-Duc into a national style....
Dish with an Assyrian pattern
From 1866 on, the painter Albert Anker worked regularly with the ceramist Théodore Deck. Deck liked to involve painters, sculptors and decorators in his...
Hanging Planter
In the 1870s, Theodore Deck became exceptionally skilful at producing transparent enamels. Always attracting a changing stable of notable artists, he...
Vase
Like Carriès (1855-1894), Auguste Delaherche worked with stoneware in a new spirit; he did not incise patterns in the clay, which had been a common practice...
The Thinker
The figure of The Thinker was probably composed by Charpentier to complement the inkwell already created by Delaherche. In fact, in the catalogue for the 1895...
Platter decorated with fighting cocks
In the tradition of faience with metallic glints, which in Europe goes back to Hispano-Moorish ceramics, many designers in the second half of the nineteenth...
Sewing Table
Of German origin, like many "French" cabinetmakers since the eighteenth century, Charles-Guillaume Diehl settled in Paris in 1840 and developed a flourishing...
Medal Cabinet
Although more of a specialist in producing small pieces of furniture and objects, it was the joiner, Diehl, who produced this imposing medal cabinet, created...
Soup tureen
The importance of the Scot, Christopher Dresser, rests on his unique place among the industrial designers of the Victorian era. He was one of the artists who...
Anthropomorphic Pot
The human figure has an important place in the work of Durrio. It is used for themes posing questions on the origins of life, about death and silence, all...
Kettle
After his training as a gold and silversmith in Amsterdam and Saint Petersburg, Jan Eisenlöffel joined the Amstelhoek porcelain factory in Amsterdam in 1896...
Circular Screen
In spite of the lack of any signature or mark, this decorative screen is without doubt a product of L'Escalier de Cristal, a sumptuous shop in Paris, selling...
Cutlery set
Lucien Falize (1838-1897) had already presented several items at the 1889 Universal Exhibition produced as part of a silver service with a decorative theme of...
Vase with a Lake Scene
The goldsmiths and jewellers of the second half of the nineteenth century constantly strove to perfect and develop the techniques of enamelling for artistic...
Toilet of the Duchess of Parma
This ensemble was commissioned by a subscription circulated among the Legitimist ladies of France for the marriage, in November 1845, of...
Hawthorn
Although he is now less well-known than Lalique, Vever and Fouquet, Lucien Gaillard was one of the greatest jewellery designers of his time. This relative...
Bottle with intaglio decoration
This vase features in the album of models registered with the Conciliation Board (Conseil des Prud'hommes) in Nancy by Gallé on 14 May 1895, a year after the...
Lorraine Forest Desk
This particular bureau from the Lorraine Forest series is certainly one of the most beautiful known examples of the model which was presented at the Paris...
Still Water, Lidded Pot
Aquatic life was one of Gallé's favourite themes; he admired the art of the Far East and this pot shows the influence of Japanese ceramics. Still Waters is...
Flower Stand
The nineteenth century's craze for seventeenth-century Dutch painting is perceptible in Gallé's ceramics. It can be seen in his landscapes dominated by water...
Vase
In the Spring of 1898, Emile Gallé patented the technique of glass marquetry. This process involved the incorporation of glass fragments of various...
Hand with Seaweed and Shells
Doubtless the last work of crafted glass produced by the master from Nancy, this straight, upright hand represents the culmination of his technical mastery....
Mysterious Grapes
At the Universal Exhibition of 1889, Emile Gallé made the acquaintance of the poet Robert de Montesquiou. The two men were very close until one fateful day...
Umbellules
This model was among Gallé's submissions to the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900. In the short catalogue written and printed by the artist for the...
On such a night as this
In June 1892, the Opéra Comique in Paris put on a series of performances of the Trojans at Carthage, an opera by Berlioz fiercely condemned on its opening...
Trois-épis Chair
In 1897, the doorway to Emile Gallé's cabinet-making workshops proclaimed: "My roots are deep in the woods", a statement of faith illustrated in 1900 when...
Sitting room china cabinet
During the years 1900-1902, Emile Gallé mainly exploited the theme of aromatic herbs in his creations. From 1902, he concentrated his research on the study...
Vase with orchid decoration
This vase, by its technique, decoration and colours, belongs to a small group of rare works by Gallé, the most famous of which is a large dish in the shape...
Flame
During the 1900 Universal Exhibition in Paris, the Finnish pavilion was acclaimed by all who saw it. What astonished and delighted everyone was the ease with...
Stand for a window box
An excellent physician, deeply interested in combinations of materials, whether they be products of modern industry or those of traditional crafts, a great...
Corner display cabinet
This piece conjures up the spirit of the Casa Batlló in Barcelona, which Gaudí worked on between 1904 and 1906. The industrialist José Batlló had asked...
Console
The last great private work by Gaudí, la Casa Milà in Barcelona was commissioned by Don Pedro Milà Camps, a textile industrialist, and his wife Doña...
Wall mirror
This mirror, one of a pair where the other is almost identical in shape but reversed, comes from the apartment of the first owner of the Casa Milà in...
Historiated Frame
Everything in this frame evokes Gauguin and his wife, Mette Gad. The two 'Gs', the initials of their respective surnames, the elegant female silhouette...
Cabinet
Gimson began his career as an architect but, influenced by the ideas of William Morris, quickly developed a passion for furniture design. In 1893, he moved...
Armchair
The Aesthetic Movement, which attracted the English upper classes in the years 1870-1880, did not produce a uniform style. Rather it promoted the creation of...
Brooch: "Apparitions"
Well-known jewellers since the 1870s, Henri and Paul Vever broke new ground at the Universal Exhibition of 1900 when they presented a new line of "artistic"...
Harmony
For Eugène Grasset, decoration was primordial and the composition was necessarily subordinated to the decorative effect. This is clearly illustrated in this...
"Fern" Vase
After studying painting in Nancy and then in Paris between 1884 and 1893, Jacques Gruber returned to Lorraine to take up a position as a teacher of decorative...
Bench for a Smoking Parlour
The main claim of the Art Nouveau movement, of which Hector Guimard was one of the leaders in France, is the unity of architecture, furniture and decoration....
Central panel of a large balcony
This cast iron balcony was designed by Hector Guimard for a complex of rental apartment buildings, in the rue de La Fontaine in the 16th arrondissement of...
"Castel Henriette" door plate
Guimard exploited, with great skill, the decorative possibilities of reconstituted and glazed lava. The process consisted in making the natural lava malleable...
Armchair
In 1894, Guimard, still young and virtually unknown, found himself entrusted with the creation of the Castel Béranger, an apartment building situated in the...
Dining room table
In 1897-1898, the architect Paul Hankar built a mansion at 48 rue Defacqz in Brussels, for the widow of Vincent Ciamberlani, a rich aristocrat originally from...
Pot
This pot is part of the vast movement at the turn of the century, aiming to bring art into all areas of life, encouraging painters and sculptors to apply...
Neo-Grec style table
This table is remarkable in several aspects. Firstly, it is a magnificent example of the artistic bronzes for which Paris, in the second half of the...
Box
Having worked with great jewellers like Falize and Boucheron, for whom he created jewellery and objets d'art, Lucien Hirtz was one of the best exponents of...
Rotating Bookcase for an Office
An architect and decorator, Hoffmann was one of the founders of the Viennese Secession. As early as 1901 he turned his back on the curves of Art Nouveau and...
Three-footed vase with enamelled décor
Auguste Jean was born in Paris, probably between 1830 and 1835, given he founded his workshop about 1859. He was the son of a ceramist and began to make a...
Chair
During the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900, two rooms in the Austrian pavilion were dedicated to the regions which would make up the future...
Wine or water pitcher
At the height of Art Nouveau, luxury goods were still largely decorated with allegorical or naturalist ornamentation. So, at the 1900 Universal Exhibition,...
Armchair
This model of armchair designed Lars Kinsarvik, presented with a second model at the Paris World Fair in 1900 constitutes a beautiful example of what was...
Three-handled vase
Edmond Lachenal was a draughtsman, painter and sculptor but he was above all a remarkable ceramist. He worked for ten years for Théodore Deck and quickly...
Iznik-style plate
At the beginning of his career in the 1870s, Lachenal was introduced to the secrets of making earthenware by Théodore Deck. It was through him that Lacheneal...
Cup, "Mistletoe" service
For the year 1900, the Parisian magazine Les annales politiques et littéraires decided to offer a table service specially created for its readers, who could...
Poppy
"You would think that this flower would crumple with a puff of wind, because each part seems mobile and alive", commented a contemporary when the...
Perfume Bottle
The jeweller and goldsmith René Lalique, interested in using glass in his jewellery, asked the advice of Emile Gallé, from whom he also borrowed a taste for...
Hogweed
The keen interest shown in hairpins and combs in the late nineteenth century can be explained in various ways. From the Second Empire, the craze for Spain...
Sarah Bernhardt
On 9 December 1896 in Paris, Sarah Bernhardt celebrated thirty years as an actress. A banquet was held at the Grand Hôtel, followed by a solemn anthem. Then,...
Powder Box
Lalique created many sophisticated dressing table objects, but usually singly. However, this powder box is part of a set that seems to be unique in the...
Chandelier
After rather traditional beginnings, Raoul Larche became the quintessential Art Nouveau sculptor through the evocative power of one of his many works: the...
Dancer with a Tambourine
At the 1900 Universal Exhibition, the Sèvres Porcelain Factory created a sensation with a biscuit table centrepiece, comprised of fifteen statuettes dancing...
Clémence Isaure
Trained by the painter Hippolyte Flandrin, Charles Lepec began his career by exhibiting his paintings at the Salon from 1857 to 1859. But in 1861 he began to...
Console table with a cabinet
Edouard Lièvre was one of the most prolific and talented industrial designers of the second half of the 19th century, with an astonishingly wide range:...
Chair
It took almost fifty years for the mass produced, steam-bent, wooden furniture invented by Michael Thonet to attain respectability. At the end of the 19th...
High-backed chair
Responsible for the extensions to the Glasgow School of Art in 1896 and then 1910, the architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh was commissioned by Miss Catherine...
Chair
The London-born architect and designer, Arthur H. Mackmurdo, started his career in the workshop of the architect James Brooks. He soon attended the...
'Orchid' display case
This piece is typical of the stylistic choices which won Majorelle general critical and public acclaim and made him the leading representative of "modern"...
Table Lamp
In 1890, Majorelle set up a workshop solely to produce bronze, copper or wrought iron ornaments for his furniture. From 1898, experimental metalwork became an...
Occasional table
Under the influence of Emil Gallé, Louis Marjorelle started, in the mid-1890s, to produce "contemporary furniture decorated with natural motifs", as Gallé...
Corner seat
Like Emile Gallé, Louis Majorelle took his inspiration from the outlines of plant forms for the base, uprights and crosspieces in his furniture. However, he...
Armchair
Around 1894, Louis Majorelle changed direction and began producing "modern" furniture. Until then, Majorelle's workshops had specialised in luxury furniture...
Water lily
Although Gallé was somewhat late in applying his skills to electric lighting, it was an area that offered great scope for the Naturalist trends he advocated....
The Miner
In 1904, Edouard Taymans, a coal merchant and lover of Belgian art, commissioned this plaque from Constantin Meunier as a gift for his best clients. There...
Goblet-shaped vase
Two Danish firms, Michelsen and Jensen, founded in the mid nineteenth century, gave Scandinavian gold and silver work a prominent position in the period from...
Clock
The name Ferdinand Morawe, about whom very little is known, appeared from time to time in the magazines of the time, as a creator of small pieces of furniture...
A Chair
The forerunners of the modern style that appeared in Victorian England in the 1860s and 70s revived the values of craftsmanship. William Morris set the...
Music Cabinet
This monumental Music Cabinet, designed by Koloman Moser, is built in ample proportions. Framed by a projecting edge, it owes its beauty to its plain oak...
Support for tear-off calendar
It is very likely that this piece was not commercially produced, but rather was reproduced by the ceramics factory - la Grande Tuilerie d'Ivry - for publicity...
Wall Panel
It was the construction of the Menier chocolate factory at Noisiel (Seine-et-Marne) that gave Emile Muller the opportunity to reveal his talent by producing...
Snowballs cup
The son of a porcelain merchant, Camille Naudot trained at the Ecole de Sèvres and succeeded his father about 1889. In order to carry on his research into...
Table
"Incorporating the furnishings as much as possible into the organic architecture so that they integrate into the structure, and designing simple shapes that...
Vase
From the 1870s, Parisian art dealer-publishers specialised in ceramics, glassware, ornamental bronzes and fantasy furniture in a Sino-Japanese style. The...
Armchair
This armchair was part of one of the great sets of furniture shown by Germany in the Universal Exhibition of Paris in 1900 in the category "Fixtures for...
Buffet
Hors concours in the Universal Exhibition of 1900, because Félix Pérol was a member of the international jury, the firm of Pérol Frères decided to exhibit...
Door Panel
An architect, decorator and erudite theoretician, Pugin was the pioneer of the Gothic Revival which influenced all of Victorian England. His rediscovery of...
Chair
Fortunately saved from demolition in 1963, Scarisbrick Hall in Lancashire, is a superb example of a romantic English hall incorporating many elements of...
Women in White
This tapestry was made by France Ranson-Rousseau, the cousin and wife of the decorator Paul Ranson, who designed the cartoon for it in 1892-1893. It belongs...
Coffee pot
At the Universal Exhibition of 1867, alongside champlevé and painted enamel in the mediaeval and Renaissance tradition, the first modern enamelled pieces,...
Clock
When the architect-decorator Emile Reiber joined the Maison Christofle in 1865, he had the idea of creating a collection of decorative objects. The skill of...
Jardinière
Not content with securing the various services of well-known artists, Christofle & Co, the leading French manufacturer of gold and silverware in the second...
Teapot
This animal teapot was designed by Reiber after a Japanese bronze from the collection of Henry Cernuschi (1821-1896), a rich Italian banker, living in Paris,...
Hymn to Life
Towards the end of his life, Renoir moved to Cagnes-sur-Mer in the south of France. In spite of being paralysed, he agreed to produce some sculptures. It was...
Day and Night
Featured in a catalogue for a public auction in Versailles in 1970, this chair was then described as "having been owned, according to tradition, by Sarah...
Candlestick
In 1897, Richard Riemerschmid decided to abandon his career as a painter in order to concentrate exclusively on "design" and architecture. Wishing to play his...
Obsession
At the end of the nineteenth century, the mask became one of the favourite forms of expression for sculptors. As well as the masks by Ringel, works by Amy,...
Project for a vase
The work of Rudolphi, a Danish silversmith who lived in Paris, was admired by his contemporaries for the excellence of its design and execution. His creative...
Ornamental vase
The art of enamelling was revived in all its diversity at the height of the Second Empire. Polychrome decoration, which was used in all the industrial arts,...
Monumental Mirror
It would be hard to imagine a more eloquent demonstration of the alliance of art and industry advocated during the Second Empire than this sumptuous mirror....
Rhyton with fox's head
Taking an antique shape, the rhyton (from the Greek rhuton, from rhein meaning to flow) is a drinking cup in the form of a horn or animal's head, which, while...
Three-Panelled Screen
In 1899, Gustave Serrurier-Bovy, an interior designer based in Liège, anxious to improve the circulation of his creations, decided to open a shop at number...
Pendant
Gustave Serrurier-Bovy, from Liège, was one of the major figures in the revival of interior design in Belgian, along with Paul Hankar, Victor Horta and Henry...
Bedroom Furniture
This wardrobe, part of a bedroom suite whose different elements (bed, dressing table, cheval glass, screen) are also in the Musée d'Orsay, consists of two...
Pedestal
More an architect than a decorator, Shaw was also one of the leaders of the Aesthetic Movement, but his contribution relates more to the definition of a new,...
Bench seat with backrest
Stephan Sinding was without doubt one of the most famous Scandinavian sculptors of his time: Carl Jacobsen gave him pride of place in the museum he founded in...
No. 4 Chair
This chair is made of beechwood laths steamed and bent into curved jigs then dried, sanded, and finally stained and varnished before being assembled with...
Vase
Artistic director for Tiffany and Company between 1875 and 1891, Edward Chandler Moore (1827-1891) put his mark on the style of this major American company,...
Love Cup
The famous New York company, founded in 1837 by Charles Lewis Tiffany, only acquired a truly international reputation towards the end of the 1860s. Its...
Vase
The son of Charles Tiffany, the founder of the great New York jewellers and goldsmiths Tiffany and Co, Louis Comfort Tiffany started as a painter and then...
At the New Circus, Papa Chrysanthemum
In 1895, the art dealer Siegfried Bing (1838-1905) transformed his famous Parisian gallery devoted to the arts of the Far East into an establishment with the...
Lady's Writing Desk
The catalogue of the "Industries of Art and Ornamentation" published by Henry van de Velde in Brussels in 1899 included a picture of this desk in its context,...
Tea table
From his very first pieces of furniture, Van de Velde had mastered his art, and later, in his writings, he merely applied a theory to what he had produced...
Chandelier with Boa
It is rather surprising to find the names Vaudremer and Fremiet together on this stunning chandelier. The architect of the Prison de la Santé in Paris and of...
Table
In 1895, the painter Heinrich Vogeler used an inheritance from his father to buy the Barkenhoff. This building in Worpswede-Ostendorf, a town in Lower Saxony...
Wardrobe: Die Zeit
The first known pieces of furniture by Otto Wagner designed in the 1880s, a period which saw a veritable cult of ornamentation, were already striking for...
Tray, Bristol service
The success of the Worcester porcelain factory, which was highly acclaimed at the Universal Exhibitions of 1873, 1876 and 1878, owed much to the personality...