Émile Gallé

ÉMILE GALLÉ (Nancy, France, 1846 - 1904).
Vase "Magnolias", ca. 1900.
Cameo glass.
Signed.
Measurements: 43,5 x 12 cm.

Acid-etched cameo glass vase with stylized globular vessel and circular base. The decoration of magnolias is freely arranged on the surface, as is typical of cameo glass Gallé. It is composed of two layers of glass, in wine and ochre colors, lowered at different levels to create tonal variations and details that bring three-dimensionality to the flowers.
Gallé presented his acid-etched cameo technique at the Paris Exposition of 1889 with the aim of bringing modernist glass to the public. It is a faster and cheaper way of decoration, so the result was more affordable pieces, mass-produced but handmade, as no templates were used but the motif was drawn by hand on each piece.

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. Today, pieces made by Émile Gallé can be seen 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.