musée de l'École de Nancy

The Musée de l'École de Nancy is a museum in Nancy, in north-eastern France, devoted to the École de Nancy, one of Europe's major centres of Art Nouveau. The museum opened in 1964 in the former residence of Eugène Corbin, a leading patron of the movement, and holds works by all the principal artists of the Nancy school, including Émile Gallé, Louis Majorelle, Victor Prouvé, the Daum brothers, and Jacques Grüber.

The origins of the collection date to 1900, when the municipal council of Nancy resolved to create a museum of decorative arts. It was first installed in 1901 in a room of the Musée de Peinture et de Sculpture, located on the ground floor of the town hall, with Jules Larcher as its first manager. Early acquisitions included thirty-nine glassworks by Émile Gallé, selected by the artist himself and purchased in 1903, followed by three pieces donated by Édouard Bour that same year and, after his death in 1907, the museum's first furniture piece. The museum also acquired works from regional art industries during the 1909 Exposition internationale de l'Est de France.

The 1910s and 1920s saw more heterogeneous acquisitions, slowed by the First World War; acquisitions resumed in 1921 with Art Deco pieces, including Daum glassware, a stained glass by Jacques Grüber, and ceramics by the Mougin brothers. Following Louis Majorelle's death in 1927, his descendants donated several of his furniture pieces.

The decisive turning point came in 1935, when Eugène Corbin, one of the movement's greatest patrons, donated his École de Nancy collection to the city of Nancy. His heirs made further donations: his brother Louis in 1935, and the wife of Charles Masson (Corbin's brother-in-law) in 1938. These collections were installed at the Galeries Poirel. The museum opened to the public on 8 June 1935 but met with limited success despite free admission on certain days and local publicity campaigns.

In September 1939, numerous works were evacuated away from the Franco-German border to the châteaux du Bouilh and La Brède, as well as to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nancy, the Musée Lorrain, the municipal library, and the municipal archives. From 1945 to 1964, the museum was closed to the public while the Galeries Poirel returned to temporary exhibition use, though acquisitions continued, including works by Hector Guimard and additional pieces by Gallé and Majorelle. The museum reopened in June 1964 in its present form, to enthusiasm from the local press and artists' heirs, though the national press remained more reserved toward the movement. In December 1988, the company Pont-à-Mousson S.A. donated eighty-five watercolour plates and drawings by Henri Bergé, designer and chief decorator at the Daum glassworks from 1895 to 1932.

The collections consist mainly of small furniture pieces and several grand ensembles, together with art objects, often in glass or ceramic, created by the leading representatives of the École de Nancy. The museum also possesses an important graphic arts collection. To evoke the atmosphere of the period, works are displayed in situ within period rooms. The holdings include Art nouveau interiors such as a bedroom, bathroom, office, and dining room, as well as display cases devoted particularly to Émile Gallé and the Daum manufacture. Drawings by Henri Bergé form a significant part of the graphic arts holdings.

Among the furniture, Émile Gallé is represented by the commode Les parfums d'autrefois, the table Le Rhin, and the bed Aube et crépuscule. Louis Majorelle's work includes a grand piano decorated with pine cones with marquetry designed by Victor Prouvé, a buffet Algues, and a dining room-library piece dating from 1904-1905, acquired in 1990 and 1996 respectively. The most spectacular ensemble is the Salle à manger Masson, created in 1904 by Eugène Vallin for Charles Masson, Corbin's brother-in-law, with leather wall panels and ceiling paintings on the theme of the five senses by Victor Prouvé.

In glass and ceramics, the museum holds a significant series of Gallé glassware including cups, vases, and light fixtures. Notable pieces include a tripod covered pot with strongly contrasting colours from 1870-1880; a tobacco pot decorated with a Gobbo from the Saint-Clément faïencerie, circa 1875; a cracked vase dated around 1880, representing Gallé's first use of the crackle technique; and an 1882 Vase aux orchidées Cypripedium, a plant that Gallé studied extensively.

The museum is housed in a substantial bourgeois house built at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, which belonged to Eugène Corbin, a wealthy businessman and major collector. A lateral wing was constructed in 1923. The site includes a garden, an aquarium pavilion classified as a historic monument, a gate created for Émile Gallé's factories, and a funerary monument. The architect of the museum installation was Lucien Weissenburger.

The Musée de l'École de Nancy is located at 36-38 rue du Sergent Blandan in Nancy, France. It is owned by the city of Nancy. The museum's official website is http://edn.nancy.fr.