In 1861, James Tissot showed The Meeting of Faust and Marguerite, which was purchased by the state for the Luxembourg Gallery.
The illustrator André Gill (1840–1885) was named curator of the Musée du Luxembourg on 15 May 1871, in which capacity he reassembled the scattered collections of art and re-established the museum of sculpture. He had scarcely begun his work when it was interrupted by the upheaval associated with the Paris Commune.