The 19th century collector: the evolution from excentrics to distinguished experts

The collector figure, analyzed from 1840 to the end of the 19th century in a large variety of literary and non-literary texts, evolves from an excentric and monomaniac type leading a cloistered life, to a fashionable connoisseur, very keen on exhibiting his possessions. This change in representation proves collecting being totally reconsidered in the period, as well as values associated to it: aristocratic and traditional values of art and art of life versus new republican values of knowledge and science. Private collections, formerly aimed at personal delight, now respond to the duty of national heritage preservation.