Le 'Musee de marchandises': The origins of the Musee Cognacq-Jay

Abstract

The Musee Cognacq-Jay, a collection of eighteenth-century painting, furniture and decorative arts, opened in Paris seventy-one years ago. For the self-made founder of one of the city's largest department stores, Ernest Cognacq (1839-1928), collecting did not represent a discrete area of activity. Indeed, a look at the history of this museum shows how the parameters in which the collection was displayed were continually shaped by the cultural pretensions of grand magasins. Culminating in a series of exhibitions held in Cognacq's Samaritalne between 1925 and 1927, this juxtaposition of fine art and luxury commodity seemed to Justify contemporaries' concerns at the end of high art's cordon sanitaire