Musée d'Orsay - Art Nouveau - Guimard

The museum hosts a substantial collection of decorative art from the period 1848 to 1914. There are rooms and rooms and more rooms dedicated to Art Nouveau. It's a thrilling thing to experience an entire living area or bedroom decorated in astonishingly original and beautifully crafted pieces of functional art-furniture.


Hector Guimard is the name behind the gorgeous, swoopy-shaped turn-of-the-last-century Metro signs and banisters still in use at some iconic Paris stops. Here in d'Orsay the breadth of his talent is on display.

Hector GUIMARD 'Crossed balcony section' 1905-07 cast by Saint-Dizier Foundry

Hector GUIMARD 'Smoking Room Bench' 1897-98


Hector GUIMARD 'Coffin Handles' 1907 (left) 'Door Handles' 1897 (right)





Some more balcony grilles by Guimard
(L & R)