Edmond du Sommerard photograph BNF Gallica

Edmond Du Sommerard (27 April 1817,

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

- 6 February 1885, Paris) was a French museum conservator.

Life and work

His father, Alexandre Du Sommerard, created what became the

Musée de Cluny The Musée de Cluny (), officially Musée de Cluny-Musée National du Moyen Âge (), is a museum of medieval art in Paris. It is located in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, bordered by square Samuel-Paty to the south, boulevard Saint-Michel to t ...

, and he served as its first

curator A curator (from , meaning 'to take care') is a manager or overseer. When working with cultural organizations, a curator is typically a "collections curator" or an "exhibitions curator", and has multifaceted tasks dependent on the particular ins ...

.Data entry
@ the

Bibliothèque Nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

As the Commissioner General of expositions from 1871 to 1878, he developed the museum's collection of works from the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

and

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

, increasing it from about 1,400 pieces to over 10,000. His most notable addition was a famous series of six

tapestries Tapestry is a form of textile art which was traditionally woven by hand on a loom. Normally it is used to create images rather than patterns. Tapestry is relatively fragile, and difficult to make, so most historical pieces are intended to han ...

, known as ''

The Lady and the Unicorn ''The Lady and the Unicorn'' () is the modern title given to a series of six tapestries created in the style of ("thousand flowers") and woven in Flanders from wool and silk, from designs (" cartoons") drawn in Paris around 1500. The set is o ...

''. He completed his father's work, ''Arts au moyen âge, en ce qui concerne principalement le Palais romain de Paris, l’Hôtel de Cluny, issu de ses ruines, et les objets d’art de la collection classée dans cet hôtel'', which had been left unfinished when he died. On his own, he wrote a ''Catalogue et description des objets d’art de l’antiquité, du moyen âge et de la Renaissance, exposés au Musée''. He was a member of the

Institut de France The ; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the . It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute manages approximately ...

. In 1882, he was elected to the

Académie des Beaux-Arts The (; ) is a French learned society based in Paris. It is one of the five academies of the . The current president of the academy (2021) is Alain-Charles Perrot, a French architect. Background The academy was created in 1816 in Paris as a me ...

, where he took Seat #6 in the "Unattached" section; succeeding

Charles Blanc Charles Blanc (17 November 1813, Castres (Tarn) – 17 January 1882, Paris) was a French art critic. Life and career He was the younger brother of the French socialist politician and historian Louis Blanc. After the February Revolution of 1848 ...

(deceased).

References

External links

1817 births 1885 deaths French art historians French curators Members of the Académie des beaux-arts People from Paris {{France-historian-stub

Life and work

References

Further reading

External links