Timeline

Key figures

Origin and history

The Musée national de la Marine came into being in 1748 when Henri Louis Duhamel du Monceau, a naval engineer, offered Louis XV his collection of ship models. Located at the Louvre in 1752 under the name of Salle de Marine, this collection was used for the training of students engineers. Closed in 1793, it is merged with other funds under the Revolution, but without leading to a structured museum. In 1810, Napoleon I commissioned a new collection for the Trianon, marking a desire to enhance the naval heritage.

In 1827, Charles X officially created the Dauphin Museum at the Louvre, renamed the Naval Museum in 1830. Under the direction of Pierre-Amédée Zédé, then François-Edmond Pâris (1871-1893), the museum is enriched with ethnographic and technical models, becoming a place of memory of world nautical architectures. Pâris structures the collections by cultural themes and develops an internal naval modeling workshop, producing nearly 200 models of traditional boats.

In 1919, the museum was attached to the Department of the Navy and took its current name. He settled in 1943 in the Passy wing of the Chaillot Palace, benefiting from dedicated spaces. From 1947, a national network was established with the museums of Brest, Toulon, Rochefort and Port-Louis. Closed for renovation in 2017, the Parisian site reopens in 2023 after a complete modernization.

The collections, from royal gifts, arsenals (Brest, Rochefort, Toulon) and acquisitions, cover marine painting, naval modeling (including historical arsenal models), navigational instruments and ex-votos. The museum also maintains a library of 40,000 books and a resource centre in Dugny. His museographic approach combines technical, history and ethnography, reflecting the evolution of marine cultures.

The current network, with its five locations, allows for a national and local approach. Each site highlights regional specificities: the Brest arsenal, the Far East roads in Port Louis, or naval medicine in Rochefort. The Parisian museum remains the historical and documentary centre, with temporary exhibitions of international importance.

Collection

Le musée de la Marine à Paris conserve 30 000 objets et oeuvres d'art, dont l'essentiel de la série des Vues des ports de France de Joseph Vernet, des figures de proues, ainsi que 2 822 modèles de navires de toutes les époques, notamment de navires de guerre à voile des xviie siècle, xviiie siècle et xixe siècle.

External links