I
In the spring of 1902 there took place in Paris the first of the
exhibitions to which the new Galliera Museum is henceforth to be
devoted. This Gallery, still unknown to a considerable number of English
visitors, was built by Ginain in the style of the French Renaissance,
and is all that a small museum should be. Its history is briefly as
follows. In 1878, the Duchesse de Galliera presented to the City of
Paris a plot of ground situated in the Rue Pierre-Charron by the
Trocadero avenue, and undertook to erect upon it a suitable building in
which to house the collection of works of art that she proposed leaving
to the nation. Before, however, it was finished, and in consequence of
the political events that resulted in the expulsion of the heads of
princely houses from France, the Duchess had made a will in which she
left her pictures to her native town of Genoa, only making provision for
the completion of the Gallery. She died in 1888, and soon afterwards
Paris found herself in possession of this fine museum, surrounded with
gardens, and admirably appointed in the architectural detail so well
understood by the French, but empty of all the treasures it was to have
housed. What was to become of it? The municipal council decided that it
should be devoted to industrial art, forming a sort of supplement to the
Carnavalet Museum, and the necessary furnishing was undertaken with a
view to that end. It was formally opened in 1895, but for five years
after that remained practically empty, though purchases were made from
successive Salons of different kinds of decorative art and disposed
among the vacant rooms to form a nucleus for future acquisitions. In
1900 the Council, after much deliberation, decided that the museum
should be devoted to periodical industrial exhibitions, and the first
one, of a miscellaneous character, took place in the following year. Its
distinctive feature consisted in what was an entirely new departure for
France, namely, that every craftsman signed his work instead of being
represented only in the name of the firm which employed him. This idea,
to which we have now long been accustomed through the efforts of the
Arts and Crafts Society, was a very novel one for our neighbours, and is
to be adopted henceforth in all the Galliera exhibitions. The initiative
met with such undoubted success that the Germans proceeded at once to
start a museum at Mulhouse on similar lines. The organizing jury of the
Council, which includes the foremost men of letters, artists and
critics, next decided that the yearly exhibitions should each be devoted
to a special branch of decorative art. The first of these was
inaugurated in May 1892, in an admirably planned show of modern bindings
comprising the latest developments, and, it must be added,
eccentricities of ornamental book covers. The number sent in
necessitated the largest gallery being set aside for their reception,
and was a testimony to the confidence felt by the binders that merit
would be the sole criterion. And indeed, though much interesting work
was rejected, not only were the well-known artists well represented,
such as Michel, Mercier, Gruel, Ruban, Canape, Lortic, Carayon, etc.,
but room was found for the curious vellum covers of Pierre Roche and the
incised and modelled leather of Lepère with whom Michel and others so
happily collaborate. The impression made upon the visitor was at once
one of careful selection and admirable disposition. In contrast to the
wretched instalment offered by the great Exhibition of 1900, the work of
every binder was seen to the best advantage, the eye was not fatigued by
too many show-cases, and the harmony of surroundings left nothing to be
desired. The display of works of art is in itself a study, and we could
undoubtedly learn much from the French in the excellent arrangement of
their galleries. But what a strange transition from that great room in
the Bibliothèque Nationale, where rest at last the classic specimens of
work that may without exaggeration be included among the fine arts, to
this most modern of collections! When in the Bibliothèque Nationale we
are reminded of that exquisite sonnet of Hérédia—
[Illustration: 30. BOUND BY MARIUS MICHEL.]
[Illustration: 31. BOUND BY MARIUS MICHEL.]