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A Building for the Museum’s Collections
In acknowledgement of Adrien Dubouché’s work, the French government agreed to the town’s request in 1881 to take over running of the museum and its collections. That same year, a law was passed decreeing that the museum and Limoges Art School (founded in 1868), should become national institutions and that an adequate building be constructed on land formerly occupied by Limoges lunatic asylum! Work began in 1896 and the new museum building designed by Parisian architect Henri Mayeux was inaugurated in 1900. Its Italianate facade featured large round-arched windows running along the ground floor and a virtually windowless second floor decorated in sgraffito style with a series of niches for busts of famous people from the local area.
The building is based on a metal-framed structure, the latest technical development of the time and is skilfully adapted for its purpose. Generous ground floor windows bring light directly into the large rooms where ceramics are displayed in rows of glass cases specially designed to reduce their wooden frames to a minimum. Sculptures and paintings (now kept in Limoges Municipal Museum) on the first floor were lit from above through skylights. Interior decoration was largely influenced by Art Nouveau style with numerous painted, mosaic or sculpted details on floor, walls and ceiling representing stylised natural motifs.
Several stained glass windows by Marcel Delon add a coloured note to the museum’s interior and visitors climb a monumental staircase to reach the first floor via a reception hall with painted ceilings realised by the Parisian firm of Rouillard. The downstairs entrance hall floor is decorated with mosaics by Guilbert Martin from Saint-Denis (Paris). |
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© Musée national Adrien Dubouché - RMN |
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