'Forgotten' designer of art nouveau Métro station entrances to get Paris museum

The designer of Paris's most iconic Métro station entrances and art nouveau buildings is to be given his rightful place in the city's history with a museum dedicated to his work.

- Kim Willsher

Hector Guimard left a distinctive mark across the French capital in the early 1900s, creating elaborate and monumental Métro entrances whose fans of iron and glass, resembling unfurled insect wings, were nicknamed dragonflies.

The station surrounds of sinuous cast iron, with lamps resembling lily-of-the-valley flowers and stylized Métropolitain signs, feature in postcards, photos and style books. When installed in the early 1900s, however, many Parisians were scandalized by them. One critic declared the green paint "un-French" and another said the ornate signs were "confusing to children trying to learn their letters... and stupefying to foreigners".