Description of the attraction
The Paris Museum of Decorative Arts is located in the west wing of the Louvre, and this is no coincidence: for centuries the French lifestyle was considered high art.
This museum is the only one in France to showcase the techniques and materials of decorative arts from the Middle Ages to the present. There are approximately 150,000 exhibits in its funds, of which visitors can see 6,000, exhibited according to the principle of chronology: the Middle Ages, Renaissance, XVII-XVIII centuries, XVIII-XIX centuries, Art Nouveau, Art Deco … and so on to the present day. There are also thematic expositions - wood, jewelry, toys.
The collection, housed here in 1905, mainly consists of furniture, dishes, carpets, glass, jewelry, clothing. All of this is worth seeing: France has set the tone for the development of European decorative arts since the 17th century. Here the "big style" of Louis XIV was born, Versailles defined the role of decor in the interior for a long time. France gave the world sophisticated techniques named after their creators - the furniture maker André Charles Boulle, the Tapestry dyer.
France can be called a country of thoughtful decorative thinking that manifests itself in every detail, in strengthening the principles of which great creators took part. The dominance of Art Nouveau in the first quarter of the 20th century is associated with the name of the genius Le Corbusier. The middle of the century produces magnificent ceramics by Leger and Picasso, carpets and posters by Dufy, stained glass windows by Matisse. The interiors of Paris airports, UNESCO meeting rooms, the Paris House of Radio are decorated by outstanding decorators and applied artists.
The Museum of Decorative Arts is part of the national organization Les Arts Decoratifs (Decorative Arts), created in 1882, after the Paris World Exhibition, to preserve the works created in this area.
In the museum, you can see and examine in every detail objects of different eras: hairpins for ties, doll houses, the first photowall-paper. And next to it, for example, is the recreated interior of the bedroom of the courtesan Lucy Emilie Delabin, whose luxurious bed was described by Emile Zola in the novel Nana.
