Émile Gallé

ÉMILE GALLÉ (Nancy, France, 1846 - 1904).
Ceiling lamp.
Blown glass, acid-etched multilayer glass and nickel-plated bronze.
Signed.
In working order.
New wiring.
Measurements: 83 x 50 x 50 cm.

Typically Art Nouveau ceiling lamp with a diffuser decorated with acid-etched multilayer glass representing a squirrel in a hazelnut tree, a rare motif within Gallé's imaginary.

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 traveled through Italy, England and Germany, becoming interested 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 the glass furnaces of his family were, in order to fully learn the craft of glassmaker. He also traveled 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 awards at international exhibitions and selling works to major 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 will discover three techniques that will prove decisive for his production: the remarques of the Pantin Glassworks, the cameo engraved glasses of the English (which are inspired by the Portland Glass of the British Museum) and the superposition of layers of glass of different colors presented by Eugène Rousseau. Undoubtedly, Émile Gallé was a man fully representative of his time. He was a poet, an artist par excellence, able to translate into matter his emotions and longings, 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 would be the most famous in France around 1900. He was, moreover, founder and president of the Nancy School, whose principles he always followed. He introduced in his pieces all kinds of experimental and innovative techniques, as well as some traditional ones. One of them 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 a huge variety of themes and decorative techniques on opaque and colored glass, which continue to amaze today. Currently you can see pieces made by Emile Gallé in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the Orsay Museum in Paris, the Brohan Museum in Berlin and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, among many others.