Antique Glass Paste Vase by Emile Galle

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Glass paste vase from the modernist period signed Galle with branches and leaves in acid. 31 cm H

Émile Gallé … Read more Glass paste vase from the modernist period signed Galle with branches and leaves in acid. 31 cm H

Émile Gallé (Nancy, May 8, 1846 - Nancy, September 23, 1904) was a French artist who worked with glass and is considered one of the greatest representatives of the French Art Nouveau movement.

Gallé was the son of a ceramic and furniture manufacturer. He studied philosophy, botany and drawing during his youth. He would later learn glassmaking in Meisenthal, working later in his father's factory in Nancy after the Franco-Prussian War. In his initial work he would use clean glass decorated with glazes, but he would soon return to an original style by using heavy, opaque glass cut or etched with floral motifs. His career would take off after his work received excellent reviews at the Paris Exposition of 1878.

Together with Antonin Daum, he created the movement known as the École de Nancy, (Nancy School)

In the following decade, Gallé would successfully showcase his creations at the Universal Exhibition in Paris (1889), achieving international fame. His style, which emphasized naturalistic and floral decorations, was at the forefront of the Art Nouveau movement that was emerging at the time. He would continue to incorporate experimental techniques into his work, such as the use of air bubbles or metal sheets, and he also revitalized the glass industry, creating his own workshop to mass-produce his own and other artists' designs. His factory would employ 300 workers and craftsmen, including the remarkable glassmaker Eugène Rosseau, and would be in operation until 1913.

He also devoted himself to furniture design, with heavy drawings derived from Rococo art, and wrote a book entitled Écrits pour l'art 1884-89 (Writings on Art 1884-89), which was to be published posthumously in 1908.

Émile Gallé was a convinced humanist involved in the creation of schools for the working class (l'Université populaire de Nancy). He was treasurer in Nancy of the Ligue Française pour la Défense des Droits de l'Homme and in 1898, at great risk to his business, was one of the first to become actively involved in the defense of Alfred Dreyfus. He also publicly condemned the Armenian genocide, defended Romanian Jews, and as a Protestant, raised his voice in defense of Irish Catholics against Britain, supporting William O'Brien, one of the leaders of the Irish revolt. This piece has an attribution mark,
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