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| | Gallé, Emile | | | (*) 1846, Nancy | | (x)1904, Nancy | | Gallé, son of a successful faience and glass producer, studied philosophy, botany, and drawing, later learned glassmaking in Meisenthal at Burgun,Schverer & Co. In 1874 he became the director of his fathers company. He first made clear glass, lightly tinted and decorated with enamel and engraving, but already influenced by his love for nature and Asian art. Being inspired by the first steps of the young art nouveau movement and artists like Eugene Rousseau, he soon developed the use of glass mottled with coloured powders, often layered in several thickness and carved or etched to form motifs that where again inspired by nature. His glass was a great success at the Paris Exhibition of 1878.
In 1884 he opened a second factory for furniture.
Burgun & Schverer still executed many of his glass vessels during these years, under the artistic direction of Désiré Christian.
Gallé's strikingly original work made a great impression when it was exhibited at the Paris Exposition of 1889. Over the next decade his glass, reflecting the prevailing interest in Japanese art, became internationally known and imitated. He invented special glass techniques such as his famous marqueterie de verre.
Galle made two distinct qualities of glass. On the one hand his "poems in glass" or "artistic", masterpieces that took hours and hours of patient work to make. And on the other hand, his high quality art glass designed to be less expensive to make but still a treasure and an object of beauty, good enough to carry his signature. This was later to develop into what is today called "industrial Galle".
During this timeframe Gallé had up to 300 workers employed in his company. He became a member of the Société Natiolale des Beaux Arts and received many prices and medals for his work.
The use of thick glass applications on his vessels, which then where carved to flowers, insects or other motifs granted him a final big triumph on the universal exhibition in 1900. He was the founder of the Ecole de Nancy, a group of most of the famous artists from the Lorraine area, like Majorelle and the brothers Daum, who already had a big influence on French art nouveau. This famous group should have its biggest exhibition in the year of Gallé’s death.
Gallé died in 1904, whilst directing the work on new designs from his bed. After his death Mme Gallé, his widow, and his son in law continued production until the early thirties. Some very famous Gallé vases were made as late as ca. 1925, like the calla lily or the elephant vase, but these are exceptions and the creative heads in the company did not keep pace with the changes in style in the late twenties. In the end the company was forced to close down.
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