Emile Gallé Commodes and Chests of Drawers

This "Chardons des Sables," or "Sand Thistle," multi-wood chest of drawers, by Émile Gallé, is a moving meditation on the artist's own mortality. T...

A French Art Nouveau marquetry commode by Émile Gallé. With original key. Circa 1890. The syncretic influence of Japanese art is keenly felt in Gallé's commode. The beginning of Galle's fascination with Japanese art can be traced back to his friendship with Hokkai Takashima (1850-1931), a fellow botanist and member of the École de Nancy. Their botanical dialogue was facilitated by the Shokobutsu mei-i, a book of Japanese names for botanical species. It is from Hokkai that Gallé gained a spiritual and symbolic understanding of nature. Along with other École de Nancy artists, Hokkai and Gallé exhibited together in the display window of René Wiener's papeterie. The store served as the office of Wiener's arts journal, the Nancy artiste, which regularly featured on its covers contemporary examples of Gansai (Japanese watercolor), Byōbu (folding screens) from the Rinpa school, Sumi-e (ink painting), and Ukiyo-e (woodblock prints). As a show of gratitude, Hokkai bequeathed a vast art book collection to Wiener. It is from this record that we know with certainty of which Japanese artists Gallé had knowledge. One of the books in Hokkai's collection was Hokusai's Les cent paysages du Fuji (Fugaku hyakkei.) This 1835 expansion of Hokusai's 36 views of Mount Fuji...