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Journal of the History of Collections Advance Access published online on March 21, 2007
Journal of the History of Collections, doi:10.1093/jhc/fhm003
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© The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

A pinacothèque préhistorique for the Musée des Antiquités Nationales in Saint-Germain-en-Laye

Maria P. Gindhart


  Abstract

In 1884, the Beaux-Arts inspector and art critic Armand Dayot indicated that the Musée des Antiquités Nationales in Saint-Germain-en-Laye was becoming ‘a sort of prehistoric art gallery where we will be able to gaze with contemplation at the venerable figures of our antediluvian ancestors’. This pinacothèque préhistorique never fully materialized, but a few paintings representing the Stone Age were exhibited at this French institution. These representations established a context for the prehistoric fossils and artefacts housed at the museum, while, symbiotically, the Palaeolithic and Neolithic objects on display helped to validate the images that made reference to them. Similar works of art proposed for the museum were not acquired, however, and two of the paintings were subsequently given away. Only Fernand Cormon's Return from a Bear Hunt (1884) remains on view today, serving as a reminder of an era when artistic depictions of the past both excited and educated the public about prehistory.

Correspondence: Dr Maria P. Gindhart, Assistant Professor of Art History, Georgia State University, Ernest G. Welch School of Art and Design, P.O. Box 4107, Atlanta, GA 30302-4107, U.S.A. mgindhart{at}gsu.edu


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