Emile Gallé Urns

“Art for art’s sake” was a belief strongly espoused by the celebrated French designer and glassworker Émile Gallé (1846–1904). Through his ethereal glass vases and other vessels, which he adorned with botanical and religious motifs, Gallé advanced the Art Nouveau ideology and led the modern renaissance of French glass.

Gallé was the son of successful faience and furniture maker Charles Gallé but studied philosophy and botany before coming to glassmaking later in life. The young Gallé’s expertise in botany, however, would inform his design style and become his signature for generations to come.

After learning the art of glassmaking, Gallé went to work at his father’s factory in Nancy. He initially created clear glass objects but later began to experiment with layering deeply colored glass. While glass makers on Murano had applied layers of glass and color on decorative objects before Gallé had, he was ever-venturesome in his northeastern France, taking advantage of defects that materialized during his processes and etching in natural forms like insects such as dragonflies, marine life, the sun, vines, fruits and flowers modeled from local specimens. He is also credited with reviving cameo glass, a glassware style that originated in Rome. Gallé used cabochons, which were applied raised-glass decorations colored with metallic oxides and made to resemble rich jeweling. The vases and vessels Gallé made with these techniques were widely popular at the Paris Exhibition of 1878, cementing his position as a talented designer and pioneer.

During the late 19th century, Gallé led breakthroughs in mass production and employed hundreds of artisans in his workshop. While botany and nature remained great sources of inspiration for his glassmaking, Gallé had many interests, such as Eastern art and ceramics. The Japanese collection he visited at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (then the South Kensington Museum) during the 1870s had made an impression too. Breaking free from the rigid Victorian traditions, Gallé infused new life and spirit into the art and design of his time through exquisitely crafted glass vessels and pioneering new glassworking techniques.

Find a collection of Émile Gallé vases and vessels on 1stDibs.