Journal of the History of Collections Advance Access originally published online on July 20, 2006
Journal of the History of Collections 2006 18(2):211-223; doi:10.1093/jhc/fhl014
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
The rise and fall of the Musée Marcello
Only seven women artists had works on display at the Musée du Luxembourg in France at the end of the nineteenth century, and only one of them was a sculptor: Adèle d'Affry (1836–79), the Duchess Castiglione Colonna, known professionally as Marcello. In an attempt to secure a permanent place for the display of her art for future generations, Marcello planned the creation of the Musée Marcello, to be opened after her death in her birthplace of Fribourg, Switzerland. The museum, which opened in 1881, presented both the artist's own sculptural work and the art of her friends, among them Courbet and Delacroix. At the time of its opening, the Musée Marcello was the only public museum in Europe funded and planned by a female sculptor and which contained a large selection of her own works. Although the museum had been well received by visitors and critics, by 1936 its demise was assured. This paper presents a historical overview of the Musée Marcello, its creation and ultimate downfall, and the critical reception of both the institution itself and the sculptor who carved out a place for sculpture in nineteenth-century Europe.
1 A. Aeppli et al. (eds.), La Suisse, Étude géographique, démographique, politique, économique et historique (Neuchâtel, 1907–8), p. 378.
2 Monique von Wistinghausen, Qui est Marcello? Esquisse socio-historique de l'artiste (Fribourg, 1980), pp. 11–23. (The Musée Marcello is discussed only on the final page of the article.) Brief consideration of the Musée Marcello collection and how it became part of the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire is included in and article by Yvonne Lehnherr, ‘Le Musée d'art et d'histoire de Fribourg’, in Fribourg et ses musées (Fribourg, 1992), pp. 73–93.
3 Adèle Colonna (Marcello) to the Baron Maurice d'Ottenfels, undated, c.1876–7. Archives of the Fondation Marcello, Fribourg, Switzerland.
4 Testament of Mme la Duchesse de Castiglione Colonna, née d'Affry, 28 November 1877. Archives of the State of Fribourg (hereafter Archives AEF), RN 6055, documents 417-22.
5 Convention entre l'État de Fribourg et le Baron d'Ottenfels, 14 May 1880. Archives AEF, Titres de l'État, no. 665.
6 Testament of Mme la Duchesse de Castiglione Colonna, née d'Affry, 28 November 1877. Archives AEF, RN 6055, documents 417-22. See the codicil dated 15 July 1879.
7 The earliest mention of the bequest and the future Musée Marcello to come from it was published in ‘Kanton Freiburg', Freiburger-Zeitung (2 August 1879), p. 3 and Le Masque de Fer, ‘Échos de Paris. À Travers à Paris', Le Figaro (10 August 1879), p. 1.
8 ‘Kanton Freiburg', Freiburger-Zeitung (2 August 1879), p. 3. I must give special thanks to James Blakeley for his advice concerning the translation of this obituary from the original German into English.
9 ‘Musée Colonna', La Liberté (27 July 1881), p. 3.
10 ‘Canton de Fribourg’, Le Chroniqueur suisse (30 July 1881), p. 2.
11 ‘Art Notes’, New York Times (20 November 1881), p. 6.
12 Letter of Juliette Courbet to Louis Grangier, 1 September 1904. Archives of the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire, Fribourg.
13 A. Bachelin, ‘Variétés, Le Musée Marcello à Fribourg', Le Bien public (18 July 1880), p. 4.
14 ‘Marcello, Duchesse Colonna’, L'Art moderne (27 November 1881), p. 309.
16 Lina de Greyerz, Notice sur le Musée Marcello à Fribourg, trans. Louis Grangier (Fribourg, 1885), p. 13.
17 Cécile d'Ottenfels, ‘L'Ouverture d'un Musée’, in Camille Roy, Souvenir du Musée Marcello: Marcello et ses oeuvres (Fribourg, 1905), pp. 16–22. The poem was originally published in Ottenfels, Bouquet de Pensées (Paris, 1888), pp. 138–41.
18 Lehnherr, op. cit. (note 2), p. 76.
19 Extrait du Rapport annuel, de 1936, du Conservateur du Musée d'art et d'histoire, Archives AEF, File ‘Musée Marcello, B’.
20 ‘Le Nouveau Musée Marcello’, Le Fribourgeois (11 October 1947), p. 2. The same text was published in Journal d'Estavayer on 14 October 1947.
21 For a more complete study of the Hôtel d'Affry, see Aloys Lauper, ‘Rue Pierre-Aeby 16, Ancienne maison de Reynold-d'Affry’, in Les Fiches ville de Fribourg, recensement des biens culturels immeubles du canton de Fribourg (Fribourg, 2003), fiche no. 017/2003.
22 M. F., ‘Les Vernissages: Marcello et son temps (1836–79)', La Liberté (27 July 1959), p. 5.
Address for correspondence Dr Caterina Y. Pierre, Assistant Professor of Art History, Department of Art, City University of New York, Kingsborough Community College, 2001 Oriental Boulevard, Brooklyn, NY 11235-2398, USA. cpierre{at}kingsborough.edu; caterinapierre{at}yahoo.com