Adrien Dubouché - [Musée national Adrien Dubouché]

The Museum’s History

Adrien Dubouché

The Museum Building

Adrien Dubouché, benefactor and visionary


	Adrien Dubouché, portrait by A. Lafond, 1881.

The French National Porcelain Museum in Limoges bears the name of its most generous patron, Adrien Dubouché. But who exactly was he and what did he do?

Born in 1818 in Limoges, Adrien Dubouché married Ermance Bisquit (in 1846) and became a partner in his father-in-law’s firm dealing in cognac. He was not only an astute businessman but also passionately interested in art, and particularly in ceramics.


Plate from Paul Gasnault collection, tin-glazed earthenware, Théodore Deck workshop, Paris, second half of 19th century.

Adrien Dubouché was appointed director of Limoges Museum in 1865. He had long been a keen painter and collector, often in close contact with artistic life in Paris and as early as 1866 donated 400 objects to the Limoges Museum. In 1868 he founded an art school on the museum premises with the express intention that the collection should serve as inspiration to the school’s art students. Upon the death of his friend and expert in oriental pottery Albert Jacqemart, Adrien Dubouché bought his private collection of ceramics and donated it to the museum. In gratitude for this generosity, the town of Limoges and state council decreed that the museum should be named after him. During his lifetime, Adrien Dubouché donated over 4000 items to the museum. One major donation for example was the collection formerly owned by Paul Gasnault (curator of the Decorative Arts Museum in Paris), which Adrien Dubouché bought privately and then gave to Limoges Museum in 1880.

By 1881, both museum and art school had become too important to be administered by Limoges alone and were converted into national institutions. That same year construction began of new buildings to house the collections and art school.