Samuel Bing (1838-1905)

Samuel Bing was a wealthy art dealer and patron who was an authority on Japanese art and was a pioneer of the art nouveau movement in the 1890s.

He was born in Hamburg and began as an art dealer there before moving to Paris in 1871. He visited the Far East in 1875, subsequently setting up a shop in Paris called La Porte Chinoise for the sale of oriental works.

In 1895 Bing set up a set up another shop in Paris - La Maison de l'Art Nouveau - to promote the new decorative arts of Europe. The term ‘ art nouveau’ derives from the name of this shop.