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Emile Galle (1846-1904), French glass maker, ceramist
and designer, was and still is the dominant figure in French cameo
glass and was perhaps the most outstanding person working in glass
during the art nouveau period.
 Born
in Nancy, France, in 1846, Emile Gallé is considered one
of the most outstanding glass artists of his time, as he greatly
contributed to the development of the art of glassmaking and to
the Art Nouveau Style. He was following William Morris's precepts
before 1880 and was so Inspired by Chinese cameo glass, that he
created glassware that was to influence Tiffany in the United States.
He traveled in Paris, London and Weimar after his training, which
included art, botany, and chemistry, and began producing fine pottery,
furniture and jewelry.
His father, who owned a local glass and faience factory, inspired
Galle to enter the glass industry. This sparked his interest in
glass as a medium for artistic expression.
He workied for the Burgun, Schverer glass company in Meisenthal
before establishing his own company
In
1873 he set up his own glass studio and a year later
he took over his father's glass and ceramics factory in Nancy.
In 1878, he experimented
with classical and enameled designs but his aspirations were dramatically
expanded when he visited the International Exhibition in Paris .
There, he was exposed to the cameo glass of Joseph Locke and John
Northwood from England and Eugene Rousseau in pate de verre.
In 1885, Galle opened
a small woodworkers shop where he began experimenting in marquetry
designs in furniture.
In 1889, at the
Paris International Exhibition, he presented his own new types of
glass, including carved cameo and pate de verre work, new shapes
of vases and extraordinary new colors.
At the 1900 International
Exhibition in Paris, Gallé had an outstanding exhibit with
many fine pieces of glass and with a working glass furnace in the
centre of his display He was highly acclaimed, and this experience
was probably the high point of his career.
Galle was the head of l'ecole de nancy membership of which was
resticted to men who had achieved pre-eminence in their particular
fields and included; the potter Hesteaux - fine glass makers, the
Daum brothers - painter and artist Victor Prouve and Majorelle,
the outstanding furniture maker.
Throughout the 1890's
in his "Cristallerie d'Emile Gallé", he created
new glassworks and employed a team of dedicated craftsmen-designers,
who worked on his designs and applied his signature after he approved
the work. In those years, he also exhibited his art nouveau works
with great success, winning international awards and recognition
through commissions and increased popular demand.
 The
works of Emile Gallé had a major influence on the art nouveau
movement. Clear and enameled or stratified, applied, engraved, acid
etched or wheel-carved, his glass was very elaborate. Nature inspired
his designs, which were mostly floral, some with foliage, or landscape
decorations and some with a strong Japanese feeling. He developed
a technique for the production of cut and incised flashed glass
and enameled designs, enhanced by bright colors and transparency
of the material.
Gallé made vases and lamps in two distinct qualities of
glass: his masterpieces, that took hours of precise work to make
and his less expensive, though still very high quality art glass,
that would later be called, industrial Gallé.
Galle continued to produce some glass of masterpiece quality into
the final year of his life.
Galle died in 1904
and after his death, his widow continued to run the glassworks until
the outbreak of war in 1914. The glass sold being marked with a
star after his signature. The Gallé glassware, mainly made
by acid etching on two and three layer cameo glass with landscape
and floral designs, continued to be made until 1935, when the firm
closed down.
After World War I, Paul Perdrizet, Emile's son-in-law, began producing
Galle glass once again, even adding new designs and primarily making
the multi-layer cameo glass in floral and landscape designs. Galle
cameo glass was both wheel cut and acid etched, both techniques
which required fine craftsmanship to produce and in which layers
of multi-colored glass is progressively removed to create the designs.
All Galle production ceased in 1936 although reproductions and
fakes are still made in great quantities to fool the uninformed
Major Galle works (from 1989 to 1904) included :
Glass vases and lamps, with cameo or wheel-carved Gallé
signature, etched to depict landscape scenes.
Flowers, butterflies or birds amongst foliage, in double or triple
overlaid and etched glass; internally decorated, overlaid, wheel-carved
glass; cameo glass; flashed, engraved, chased and enameled glass.
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