Vase

This month we’re partnering with Europeana again to celebrate their fantastic new Art Nouveau season (21 February - 29 May). The season explores the depth and diversity of the influential art movement and features beautiful Art Nouveau jewellery, posters and much more. It is led by a major new exhibition that tells the story of Art Nouveau from its origins to its brilliant heyday, and features fifty artworks from more than twenty museums.

Emile Gallé (1846-1904) was a French glassmaker, ceramicist and furniture designer, and one of the most influential figures within Art Nouveau. Born in Nancy, he studied botany and mineralogy in Germany before taking over his father’s glass and ceramics factory in 1874.

Technical excellence and innovation were a hallmark of the decorative arts in the Art Nouveau era. Glassmakers of the period created elaborate pieces with complex decorative motifs and luminous glazes. Emile Gallé introduced stylistic innovations into his glassware such as carved cameo and pâte de verre, a form of kiln casting where finely crushed glass is mixed with a binding material and mixed with enamels and colourants.

Gallé’s pieces met with great acclaim when they were exhibited at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris. At the height of its success in the late 19th century, Gallé’s workshop employed nearly 300 artisans. Along with Louis Majorelle, Victor Prové, Eugene Vallin and the Daum brothers, Gallé was a founder member of the École de Nancy. This influential collective enterprise produced furniture, glassware, leather, ceramics and textiles, and staked Nancy’s claim as one of the key centres of Art Nouveau.