Musée d'Orsay

Paris, France: The national museum of the Musée d'Orsay opened to the public on 9 December 1986 to show the great diversity of artistic creation in the western world between 1848 and 1914. Devoted to the arts of the second half the 19th century, and endowed with a programme designed to enhance the links which developed between architecture, painting, sculpture and the decorative arts from the beginning of the Second Empire, the Musee d'Orsay was indeed destined to be a logical extension of the Louvre's Department of Objets d'Art which stops at the end of the reign of Louis Philippe. The creation of the Musée d'Orsay was a unique opportunity to bring together works scattered through various museums and government departments (the Mobilier National, Ministère des Affaires Etrangères, the Musées-châteaux de Fontainebleau, Compiègne and Malmaison, the Louvre and the Musée de Cluny, etc.) where they were often not in public view. More than a hundred pieces were brought together without counting a number of long-term loans mainly from the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers and the Musée Christofle.

The Musee houses a huge selection of objects in the Art Nouveau style that originated in France along with a vase by Tiffany Studios. The vase was bought for the Musée du Luxembourg in 1901 from the famous art dealer Siegfried Bing, whose gallery L'Art nouveau in the rue de Provence was instrumental in introducing international contemporary design to France. It had probably just been displayed at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900, where Tiffany's work was much admired.

The Musée d'Orsay Tiffany Studios Vase