Camille Enlart s’en va-t-en guerre. Le musée de Sculpture comparée pendant la Première Guerre mondiale

Abstract

This article deals with the situation of the museum of Comparative sculpture in Paris and the particular implication of its director Camille Enlart during the First World War. In the context of an exaltation of nationalism, he organized in 1915, among the plaster cast collections of French historical monuments executed in the last third of the nineteenth century, the first exhibition of photographs dedicated to architectural and artistic destructions. He pointed out with 'offensive' notices the archeological value of the casts of the collections the originals of which were entirely or partly destroyed. Without being in the trenches, Camille Enlart led a war from inside the museum, using cultural and identity weapons to fight the enemy and to support French propaganda.

Keywords

• moulage
• Albert Besnard
• Camille Enlart
• musée de Sculpture comparée
• Trocadéro
• nationalisme