ÉMILE GALLÉ (Nancy, France, 1846 - 1904).
Art Nouveau vase; France, ca. 1900.
Acid-etched cameo glass.
Vase with an organic-inspired design, as was typical of the Art Nouveau period and the creations of Émile Gallé. It has a simple, prismatic structure with clean lines, which avoids interrupting the overall view of the decoration. It consists of leaves and branches with fruit in cameo glass in ochre, green and acid-etched brown.
Signed on the side.
Provenance: Private collection Spain, formed between 1970 and 2010.
Good preservation. Wear and tear due to use and the passage of time.
Measurements: 30 x 7,5 x 7 cm.
Émile Gallé began his career working for his father, who owned a glass and ceramics factory, making designs with floral and heraldic motifs. Very interested in botany, he studied it in depth during his youth, alternating with drawing classes. Between 1862 and 1864, at his father's request, he travelled around Italy, England and Germany, taking an interest in the applied arts but also in subjects that he would later reflect in his works, such as music, philosophy and nature. On his return he settled in Meisenthal, where his family's glass furnaces were located, in order to fully learn the craft of glassmaking. He also travelled to London and Paris to see the collections of their museums. In 1874 he took over his father's factory and soon achieved great international success, winning prizes at international exhibitions and selling his works to important collections and museums. In 1878 he presented his first creations at the Universal Exhibition in Paris, many of which were inspired by the Japanese artists Hokusai (1760-1849) and Hokkei (1780-1856). In this important exhibition, Gallé discovered three techniques that were to prove decisive for his production: the remarques of the Pantin Glassworks, the cameo engraved glass of the English (inspired by the Portland Glass in the British Museum) and the superimposition of layers of different coloured glass presented by Eugène Rousseau. Émile Gallé was undoubtedly a man fully representative of his time. He was a poet, an artist par excellence, capable of translating his emotions and desires into matter, someone who found in the alchemy of glass, in its light, in its nuances, a form of language. Because of this talent and his mastery, his glassworks became the most famous in France around 1900. He was also the founder and president of the Nancy School, whose principles he always followed. He introduced into his pieces all kinds of experimental and innovative techniques, as well as some traditional ones. One of these was the introduction of metal sheets between the different layers of glass, thus enhancing the magical effect of his most exclusive pieces. As far as possible, Gallé imposed the characteristics of a style that evolved into free and refined expressions, applying an enormous variety of themes and decorative techniques on opaque and coloured glass, which continue to amaze to this day. Today, pieces by Émile Gallé can be seen in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Brohan Museum in Berlin and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, among many others.