Who founded the Maison de l'Art Nouveau gallery in Paris in 1895?

Siegfried Bing founded the Maison de l’Art Nouveau gallery in Paris in 1895.

The gallery opened at 22 rue de Provence on 26 December 1895. Bing was already known as a dealer in Japanese and Asian art, but he shifted toward contemporary design as European artists and craftspeople sought a new visual language. The gallery’s name—literally “House of New Art”—helped popularize the term Art Nouveau.

Rather than showing only paintings, Bing presented an integrated environment of furniture, textiles, ceramics, stained glass, metalwork, prints and decorative objects. The building was designed by Louis Bonnier, while artists including Maurice Denis, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Henry van de Velde and Édouard Vuillard contributed designs or works.

The name Samuel Bing sometimes causes confusion because it appears in references connected with Bing’s family and career. The standard identification for the gallery’s founder, however, is Siegfried Bing. Another common mistake is crediting the gallery’s artists or architect as its founder; they contributed to its displays, but Bing established and directed the enterprise.