Guy Cogeval, the innovative former director of the Musée d'Orsay who transformed the renowned Parisian museum during his nine-year tenure, has died at the age of 70. The museum announced his death on social media on November 13, stating that Cogeval passed away during the night of November 12-13 from acute pneumonia, according to information from Le Monde newspaper.
The Musée d'Orsay and Musée de l'Orangerie teams expressed their emotion in announcing the loss of one of the institution's most influential figures. Cogeval, who served as director from 2008 to 2017, was widely appreciated for his libertarian spirit, audacity, and dynamic leadership that left a profound mark on the museum. "He was above all passionate about 19th-century arts, from painting to music, including opera and photography, and a lover of the Musée d'Orsay," the institution recalled in tribute.
Culture Minister Rachida Dati praised Cogeval in an official statement as a "passionate and visionary curator." His eclectic and innovative approach as an art historian fundamentally changed how visitors experienced one of France's most important cultural institutions.
Born to a French real estate agent father and Italian translator mother, Cogeval initially graduated from the Institute of Political Studies in 1977 but quickly changed direction. While working as a professor of economics at a Parisian high school, he trained in art history at the Sorbonne and the École du Louvre, earning his advanced degree in 1982. That same year, he began a two-year residency at the Villa Medici in Rome, where he wrote his thesis on the history of scenography from 1870 to 1914.
Cogeval's museum career began with an internship in the cinema section of the Musée d'Orsay, followed by positions at the Museum of Fine Arts in Lyon and the cultural service of the Louvre. In 1992, he became director of the Musée des Monuments Français, where he presented significant exhibitions such as "Italian Renaissance Architecture, from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo." In 1995, he developed a project that foreshadowed the creation of the Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine at Chaillot in 1997.
From 1998 to 2006, Cogeval headed the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where he organized several major exhibitions that later traveled to Paris. Notable among these were "Hitchcock and Art: Fatal Coincidences," co-curated with film critic Dominique Païni in 2000 and subsequently shown at the Centre Pompidou in 2001, and the acclaimed "Édouard Vuillard (1868-1940)," presented at the Grand Palais in 2003-2004. He completed his Vuillard research by writing the painter's catalogue raisonné.
In 2008, the 19th-century art enthusiast achieved his dream position as director of the Musée d'Orsay. From his arrival, Cogeval implemented bold initiatives that fundamentally transformed the institution. He first merged the Orsay and Orangerie museums into a single public establishment in 2010, then completely redesigned the presentation of Orsay's collections by remodeling 80% of the spaces.
Among his most significant architectural changes, Cogeval commissioned architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte to transform the Impressionist gallery in 2011, had the Campana brothers renovate the Café de l'Horloge, and redesigned the Amont pavilion for decorative arts. These physical transformations created new ways for visitors to experience the museum's world-renowned collection.
Simultaneously, he pursued an ambitious acquisitions policy, enriching the collections with numerous notable works including James Tissot's "The Circle of the Rue Royale" (1866) and Maurice Denis's "Portrait of Yvonne Lerolle in Three Aspects" (1897). The museum also received two important donations of Nabis paintings during his tenure: one from Zeineb and Jean-Pierre Marcie-Rivière in 2010, and another from Marlene and Spencer Hays in 2016, bringing many works by Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard to Orsay.
Cogeval revolutionized the museum's exhibition program with the help of young curators with innovative visions and original guest commissioners. He shook up Orsay with an astonishing exhibition program that broke down disciplinary barriers between politics, fashion, painting, and literature, never shying away from bold themes. In 2010, for example, he invited former Justice Minister Robert Badinter and curator Jean Clair to curate "Crime and Punishment," and writer Annie Le Brun for "Sade - Attacking the Sun" in 2014.
He also reimagined exhibition scenography by entrusting it to artists such as opera director Robert Carsen for "Impressionism and Fashion" in 2012. Other landmark exhibitions under his direction included "The Angel of the Bizarre: Dark Romanticism from Goya to Max Ernst" (2013), "Masculine/Masculine: The Nude Man in Art from 1800 to Today" (2013-2014), where academic William Bouguereau dialogued with Pierre and Gilles and Robert Mapplethorpe, figures of gay culture.
Additional groundbreaking exhibitions included "Splendors and Miseries: Images of Prostitution (1850-1910)" (2015-2016) and "Spectacular Second Empire" in 2016-2017, alongside major monographs dedicated to Édouard Manet, Gustave Doré, Pierre Bonnard, and Henri Rousseau. "In nine years, he gave new life to our museums and amplified their national and international influence," the Musée d'Orsay and Musée de l'Orangerie stated in their tribute.
Despite being renewed for a third three-year term in 2016, Cogeval's mandate was shortened to one year by the Ministry of Culture due to growing criticism within the museum regarding his management methods, which were considered harsh. In 2017, he was replaced by Laurence des Cars. Since then, he had been heading a new research center on the Nabis and Symbolism movements, attached to the Musée d'Orsay. After surviving cancer in the 2000s and a stroke in 2014, his health had deteriorated in recent years.
